Uncovering Secrets
by TCD
Summary: Bella is a journalist and she stumbles on strange disappearances. When she meets the Cullens she suspects they are involved in some way. See what happens when she gets too deep into the story and things are not as they appeared. AU. BxE. Rated T. BPOV.
1. New Job

**A/N**: Hi there, FINALLY I'm back with a longer story, it's been way overdue. I've been writing this particular story since last summer, if it hasn't even been longer than that… I just checked… it has been longer than that… I started writing this particular story in March last year :O Shame on me! :D In my defense I did have a _very_ busy semester at school so I didn't really write anything for half a year :P But alright… I'm here now and that's what matters right? *smiles a hopeful smile* But enough rambling about me ;)

Bella is starting her new job as a journalist in Seattle. During one of her stories she stumbles upon some strange disappearances and deaths. She decides this is her shot to start her career as an investigative reporter and she starts looking into the mystery. Somewhere along the way she meets the Cullens and she suspects they have something to do with the disappearances and deaths. See what happens when she gets too far into the story. Will Edward be able to save her?

I hope you enjoy the story. I cannot guarantee daily updates throughout the entire story because I never know what happens in my life ;) But I will try to do my best to upload every day and I can say with almost 100% certainty that the first 13 chapters will be daily updates. I expect that this story will have 17 chapters in total and I'm pretty sure I can all post them before I'm going away on skivacation with my parents, which will be around the 22nd of January so it'll be completely up by then :P (I hope :P)

That's enough for now, I hope you enjoy my story and I always enjoy reading what you think! :) So if you have time leave a review for me :)

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**New Job**

"_And the Pulitzer goes to Isabella Marie Swan for her piece on crime in Seattle." I walked up to the stage confidently and accepted my award with the speech I had prepared and memorized. I dutifully thanked my parents for supporting me in every decision I made, my friends for being there for me when I needed some down time from my stressful job, and my boss for giving me the opportunity to create this story.__ I elegantly walked off stage again and got ready for the party that would begin right after the ceremony. _

I was awoken by my alarm and growled in displeasure. I should have known it was only a dream when I actually managed to go through the entire ceremony without tripping or stumbling or even blushing.

Today would be my first day as a journalist. I came fresh out of college and after I had done an internship at The Seattle Times they had immediately offered me a job there and I was starting there today. I was nervous, even though I knew the people who I was going to work with, being an actual journalist at a big newspaper like that was something different from getting everyone coffee and tagging along on other people's assignments to get a feel of what it was like to be a journalist.

My dream was to one day become world's best known investigative reporter but I knew I was far from being that. I was going to start by probably copying menus or covering stories like who won the pie-eating contest at one of the local elementary schools. The kinds of stories that would take up about a hundred words somewhere in the back of the newspaper. I would have to work my way up to the front page.

I checked my phone and noticed it was already 7.30 and I had to leave in exactly half an hour to be there at 8.15. I needed to get familiarized with my own desk before starting promptly at 8.30. I jumped out of bed and dashed into the bathroom. After taking a quick shower and rushing a brush through my hair - only to find that it was a lost cause - I returned to my room and spent some time in front of my tiny closet, trying to figure out what clothes to wear.

I never paid any attention to what I was wearing and I was happy in jeans and a t-shirt but I couldn't very well appear on my first day in that outfit. So I pulled one of the few skirts I owned out of the closet and decided on a red top to go with it.

7.45 And I still hadn't started my breakfast yet. I ran towards the kitchen, which was attached to the living room in my only slightly too small apartment here in the center of Seattle, and in the process I stubbed my toe on the threshold. I cursed out loud. _Why did I have to be such an idiot? Not today! Please!_ I hopped to the kitchen, not giving myself any time to calm down. I quickly threw some cereal and milk into a bowl and attacked it without even bothering to sit down at the table.

At exactly 8 o'clock I was out the door and on my way to the company that would from now on be considered my second home. Or fourth home maybe, since I still had my mother's house in Phoenix, where she was living with Phil, her husband for quite some years now, and Charlie, my father's, house back in Forks, where I had been spending the last years of High School and all of my college years. This was the first year I was living on my own and I liked the idea of quiet whenever I wanted it to be quiet but it wasn't much different from what I had had with Charlie back home. I just didn't have to turn down my music in the evening because he was sleeping across the hall.

I entered the large doors and before I knew it I was in the hallway of The Seattle Times again. I knew I had been here before many times but still, things were different now, I belonged here now, part of the team, rather than some journalist's puppy.

"Bella! So good to see you again! How was your holiday?" Angela asked me sweetly. Angela was one of the reporters of the newspaper, we had gone to high school together but she had finished college a year earlier than I had, mostly because she had done double the courses I had in one year. So she had already been working here for a year and she was doing very well. She covered the scientific part of the newspaper and she was an excellent writer.

"Hi Ang, I'm great, holiday was fine, spent some time with Charlie but other than that nothing really important. What have you been up to so far?"

"Well, Ben and I went on our first holiday after our honeymoon together and it was really nice," she gushed. Ben and Angela had been together since high school and they were the most adorable couple you had ever seen. They had married a year ago, when Angela finished college, and it was nice to hear that married life still suited them fine.

"Sounds wonderful," I replied enthusiastically.

"Oh it was! I really needed a vacation, sometimes work can be very stressful," she said sadly and when she realized that I was on my first day of the exact same job she smiled at me apologetically. "But of course it's worth it," she added quickly. I chuckled.

"Don't worry, I know about the stress, they made that very clear to me during my internship," I joked.

"Good, well I guess we should get started right? Do you want to have lunch together this afternoon so we can properly catch up?"

"Sounds like fun!" I told her enthusiastically before we both said our goodbyes and went our separate ways.

"Good morning Bella," Adam, my new boss, greeted me.

"Good morning Adam," I replied politely.

"Can I have everyone's attention for a moment?" Adam announced to the entire room. "Many of you probably already know Bella, she did her internship here last year, but I would still like to introduce her to all of you as the newest addition to our family." I blushed heavily as everyone politely said hello and smiled at me. "Well, you know where everything is, I'll be in my office if you need me. You can start working on your new assignment immediately, you'll be covering the lunch habits of our main high school," Adam turned his attention to me and smiled kindly.

"Sure, alright, thank you," I muttered still ashamed before I made my way to my desk and started researching on my computer.

I would have to eventually start interviewing students in person but I was trying to put that off for as long as possible. I had written many articles and researched everything for those articles myself when I was still in college but this was different, this had to be good, otherwise the consequences wouldn't be just a bad grade but I would get fired and that would mean big trouble. _Don't think about that! _I told myself firmly.

After an entire morning of hiding behind my 'research' at my desk it was time for lunch and Angela came by to pick me up.

"How is it going so far?" she asked nicely.

"Fine, I have to do a piece on the lunch habits of a high school in the neighborhood, the only thing I have to do right now is find the courage to actually go to the high school and start asking around," I told her honestly.

"I remember my first assignment, I was so scared I actually started crying during my first interview, that was only to the man working at the gas station, trust me, it gets easier with every next assignment, now I can interview people for hours and not feel uncomfortable in the slightest," Angela comforted me.

"Thanks," I told her sincerely.

"Any time, you'll learn to be vicious and pushy in no time," she added jokingly.

"Fabulous," I replied sarcastically before chuckling.

I had a great time hanging out with Angela again; it was nice to hear that she and Ben were doing great. Ben still had one year of college to go but he was doing very well and Angela told me that he would be done on time. I asked her if she had stayed in touch with any of our high school friends and she said that she had run into Mike sometime ago in the supermarket, he was still working at his parents' store to make enough money to travel the world and he and Jessica were together right now but apparently they still had that 'on again off again' thing going for them. Other than that neither of us had stayed in touch with any of our old high school friends, so there was going to be no gossiping about that.

After half an hour of lunch break it was time to head back to the office and gather my courage for the interviews before school was out and I would be too late. I decided to start with the lunch lady; she probably would be the easiest to talk to.

At the end of the day I had talked to the lunch lady, the janitor and the principle and all I needed now was some insights from the children themselves. However, that would have to wait until tomorrow.

All in all my first day hadn't been half bad and I was happy that I was in a place that I was already a bit familiar with and that Angela was there as well to keep me company every now and then.

"Bella?" Adam stopped me on my way out.

"Hi Adam," I replied, trying to hide my shock of his suddenness.

"On your way out?" he asked while raising his eyebrows at me questioningly.

_Oh no! I was allowed to leave right? Had I done something wrong? _I tried to look at my watch without Adam noticing it but I failed.

"Don't worry, you're allowed to leave, I was just wondering because I wanted to walk you out," he told me while chuckling.

"Oh, yeah, I'm on my way home." I blushed seven different shades of red and stared at the floor.

"So, how was your first day? Do you like it so far? I know the piece I gave you wasn't the most interesting thing in the world."

I was very glad that Adam was my boss, he seemed very kind and even during my internship he had shown a real interest in me and he had always been polite and funny. There were some people walking around here that had treated me like I was their butler during my internship, barking order after order at me like they were shooting a machine gun.

"Yes, it was fine, I went to the high school for some interviews and I'm going back there tomorrow to do some more research," I told him shyly.

"That's very good, I noticed you were already diving into it quite quickly, are you getting the hang of it all already?"

"Yes, it's going alright I guess," I answered unsurely.

"Great!" he replied sincerely enthusiastically. "So in what kind of journalism are you most interested Bella?" Adam asked me curiously.

I blushed, if I would tell him that I was very interested in investigative journalism and that I would love to research the crime in Seattle he would probably laugh at me, since I wasn't exactly the kind of girl anyone would envision running after criminals and snooping around trying to uncover some sort of dirty secret. On the other hand, if I didn't tell him, there was no way I was ever going to get there so I might as well be honest with my boss from the beginning.

"Err…" I started while blushing heavily, "I have always wanted to be an investigative reporter," I told him softly.

"Really?" he asked, genuinely surprised but not insultingly so. "I hadn't pictured you as someone who would want to do that; I would have thought you would like to go into science or something. Not that I don't think you would be great at it, I'm sure you would do a good job. It's good to know, then I can keep that in mind for your next assignments, I'll assign you to some investigative reporters we have here every now and then so that you can get the hang of it all."

"That would be great! Thank you!" I replied enthusiastically.

Adam smiled at me again and I noticed that he was quite handsome when he smiled. Of course I had noticed that he was good-looking before but somehow it still came as a surprise to me that he would look this handsome when he smiled. I smiled back blushingly.

As I walked the 15 minute walk back to my apartment, my imagination got the better of me, I saw myself sitting across Adam's desk in a short skirt, the way secretaries would do in those really wrong movies, he smiled at me seductively and I smiled back.

I realized how wrong my thoughts were and shook my head, trying to get them out of there. It worked somewhat. I tried to convince myself that these feelings were just there because Adam had made me feel so welcome today and he had really put me at ease with this whole story and everything, it was nothing more.

The rest of the week I spent on the same story. I had interviewed some of the students about their lunch habits and their thoughts on the menu and what they would change if they could change anything. Luckily none of the students had been mean to me, and I had gotten out of there alive. I didn't once break down and I started to feel a little more confident with myself every day that passed. At the end of the week I had written my very first piece and even though it wasn't about a very relevant or important subject, I still felt proud of myself for being able to write it without any nervous breakdowns or clumsy moments.

"Nice work on your first piece Bella, you've made it an interesting story, I'm very proud of you!" Adam stopped me in the hall on Thursday evening.

"Thank you," I replied shyly while blushing deeply.

"You're welcome, it was very well written, and I'm looking forward to more of your pieces." Adam stared into my eyes and I stared back. After a moment of silence I started feeling very uncomfortable, especially in light of the inappropriate thoughts that had been crossing my mind throughout the entire week. First I had tried to pass it off as just the fact that he had been kind to me and everything but there had been many males that had been nice to me ever since then and I wasn't thinking inappropriate things about them ever.

It was strange that I had never had this feeling when I had been an intern here and I couldn't think of a reason why I would have them now. I would have loved to talk to someone about it but the truth was that I didn't have many friends with whom I could discuss something like this. Then I remembered that Angela had always had great advice in high school, she really listened whenever I would have a problem and she would actually try to help come up with a solution rather than just be looking for some new gossip like Jessica.

I decided to talk to Angela about it during lunch the next day.

"Ang, can I tell you something and you'll promise not to laugh?" I started cautiously.

"Sure, you can tell me anything, I won't laugh or judge," she said sweetly. I instantly felt more comfortable and relaxed.

"Well, it's about Adam," I started reluctantly.

"What about him?" Angela wasn't prying; she was genuinely interested in what I had to say.

"Well, it's kind of hard to explain but ever since the first day I have been working here, I've been thinking about him, and noticing things about him and everything and it's making it really uncomfortable to be around him. I don't understand because I had never really had these thoughts or feelings about him when I was an intern here so I don't understand where it is coming from now. I mean he isn't ugly or anything and I had noticed that of course but I don't understand why this is happening now," I rushed out the words.

Angela just stared at me with a thoughtful look on her face, I could see that she didn't even have to try to hide her laughter or anything, she was only concerned for me and I let out a sigh in relief. "Oh, I see," she started and I braced myself for her saying that I was crazy and a fool. "That's totally natural," she continued and my eyes popped out of their sockets and my mouth felt like it had dropped to the floor. Angela noticed my expression and started giggling. "What I mean is that it is understandable, first of all because he is indeed good-looking, but mostly just because he is your real boss now so it's exciting to have those ideas about him because it is considered a taboo to fall in love with your boss, that combined with the fact that this was your first week and you were just looking for some comfort and reassurance makes it completely understandable that you would feel some sort of attraction towards Adam even though you are not truly in love with him. I'm sure it'll pass soon enough, there's really nothing to worry about," Angela reassured me and I let out another sigh in relief.

I had forgotten that Angela had done some psychology courses on the side during her college career and how good she actually was in this.

"Thank God!" I told her happily, "Thank you Angela, that really helped me, I was feeling like such a fool! You know, it's a shame that you didn't become a psychologist, you would have been able to help so many people!" I told her enthusiastically.

I could feel that already, now that we had had this talk, I was starting to feel less embarrassing things for Adam and I was relieved to say the least.

On Saturday morning my phone started ringing and the caller ID said that it was Charlie.

"Hi dad!" I answered the phone enthusiastically.

"Oh, hi Bells," he replied, a little taken aback by my enthusiasm, "How's your new job? I read your piece in the paper today," he said eagerly.

Charlie had subscribed to The Seattle Times immediately the moment he knew I was going to be a journalist there and I was touched by his support.

"I'm really happy with my job, the people are nice and I'm happy to work in an environment I'm already a bit familiar with."

"Yeah, I can understand, well I just called to let you know that I read and enjoyed your piece, I'll let you get back to whatever you were doing now," Charlie said a little uncomfortably. He had never been very good with feelings so this was already quite a leap for him.

"Thank you dad! I'll talk to you again soon alright?" I said softly.

"Sure Bells, good luck!"

We hung up the phone and the moment I put my phone down it started ringing again.

"Hi mom," I said, after I had read 'Renée' on the caller ID.

"Hi honey," she said sweetly, "How is everything? How's the job? Do you like your new apartment? Tell me everything!" she gushed.

I gave her a short recap of the events of my life lately, I told her how much I enjoyed living in Seattle so far and how much I liked working for the newspaper. My mother had also read my first article and she told me proudly that she had cut it out of the paper and that she was planning on making a scrapbook with all my future articles in there with it. I couldn't help but laugh at my mother's obvious enthusiasm.

I spent the rest of my weekend relaxing and mostly thinking about my future. I felt very blessed with how everything had turned out, I had a job that I loved doing, I had a nice apartment and I was building a life for myself, I was sure I was going to be very happy here in Seattle.

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A/N**: Well, that was it for the first chapter. I'll be back tomorrow with the second one :) Hope you enjoyed it and let me know your thoughts! :)

Xxx

Thari


	2. Past and Future

**A/N**: First off, thanks to those who've added this story to their favorites or to their story alerts :) It means a lot to me! :) Also a special thanks to my sweet reviewers, **Shirley** and **Robsten Lover 223**, you guys rock! :)

Well, I think this is going to be my shortest A/N at the beginning of a chapter EVER :P But I just don't have all that much to say today :) Lucky you ;) Enjoy and don't forget to review! :)

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Past and Future**

My radio turned on, indicating that it was time for me to get up and start a new workday. "I hope you dance" by Ronan Keating started filling my room and I slowly opened my eyes. Whenever I heard this song it made me think of Jacob. Jacob Black, the son of Charlie's best friend, Billy Black, my high school sweetheart and currently my best friend in the whole world.

Jacob and I had met in one of the first weeks I had moved to Forks to live with Charlie. During my vacations in Forks when I was little I used to hang out with his older sisters whenever Charlie would drag me over to Billy's so he and Billy could watch a sports game or other, but Jacob and I never really noticed each other at that time.

Charlie had given me a truck when I came to live with me and apparently Jacob had fixed it up for me. So one night Charlie took me with him to Billy's house and he introduced me to Jacob. Jacob and I had hit it off straight away, I had spent the entire evening in his garage, watching him work on his car and we had chatted about everything we could think of.

It was very easy to talk to Jacob, he already felt like a brother to me from the start and it wasn't long before the two of us spent every waking moment together. We were truly inseparable for the first few years of my life in Forks and it wasn't strange that we had convinced ourselves that we had feelings for each other.

Jacob had been my best friend and boyfriend all throughout high school, we did everything together and we could tell each other everything. I had no experience whatsoever with relationships at the time and neither had Jacob, but I had seen enough chick flicks to realize that we were missing something, that it was _too_ easy with us. There wasn't anything passionate about our relationship, no flame, we loved hanging out and we kissed and hugged all the time but it wasn't quite the way I had imagined it when I had been younger.

So a few days before my senior prom of high school we had called it off, we had talked for a very long time and it was clear to both of us that it wasn't working the way we wanted it to. We were too close, it was like dating a sibling and after that idea was planted in our heads we couldn't stay together any longer, it just didn't feel right.

Jacob had still insisted on taking me to my senior prom, why was beyond me because neither of us were any good at dancing and I wasn't one for partying. But we went anyways and I had to admit we had a nice time. Luckily, Jacob could get along with my friends from school very well so we danced and laughed as one big group.

For the last dance of the prom Jacob had requested a song for us to dance to and I was very surprised at his choice. Jacob had walked up to me and at that moment the song started playing.

"Can I have the last dance?" he had asked me while extending his hand towards me.

I had taken it eagerly and he had led me to the dance floor. Jacob had put his arms around my waist and I had put mine around his neck before resting my head against his shoulder.

_I hope you never lose your sense of wonder_

_Get your fill to eat but always keep that hunger_

_May you never take one single breath for granted_

_God forbid love ever leaves you empty handed_

_I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean_

_Whenever one door closes I hope one more opens_

_Promise me that you'll give faith a fighting chance_

_And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance_

_I hope you dance_

We had swayed to the music.

"This song reminds me of you every time I hear it; I hope you get everything you have ever wished for. I love you Bells," he had told me softly.

Tears had started running down my face, I had been so touched by his words that I couldn't stop myself. "Thank you Jake, I love you too," I had managed to choke out.

The rest of the song we had danced in silence and it had been one of the best moments of my life.

I was happy that Jacob and I remained close even though we weren't a couple anymore, I could still always tell him everything and he felt the same about me. He was my best friend, my brother, and we would never be more than that.

The song ended and that meant it was really time to get up now. I slowly lifted my head from my pillow and decided to text Jacob first. I missed him terribly and decided I was going to pay him a visit this weekend.

_I heard our song on the radio and thought of you. Do you have time to meet up this weekend? X B._

I sent the text and quickly got up to get ready for work. I was going to start a new story today and I couldn't wait for a new assignment, I knew it wasn't going to be anything exciting in particular but I liked researching and interviewing, although the latter was not something I had expected to happen so soon already, and I liked the people I was working with. Also lunch with Angela every day made my days that much more fun.

The moment I wanted to step out of the door I heard my phone buzz and realized that I had forgotten it on the kitchen table; I quickly went back inside to grab it and to check the message.

_Sounds great, Bells! And then you can finally meet Leah! Can't wait! See you soon! X J._

I smiled at his message; somehow Jacob always managed to sound excited, even in a simple text.

Leah was Jacob's new girlfriend, they had been on a few dates and apparently they had hit it off. She lived on the reservation as well but we had never been introduced. Leah had first been dating this friend of Jacob's, Sam, a long time ago but he had fallen in love with her cousin, Emily, so Leah had avoided Sam and all his friends ever since. Jacob told me that he had run into her about a week ago and he had looked at her through completely different eyes, he told me it was comparable to love at first sight and he had immediately asked her out. Apparently she had felt the same way because they had been inseparable ever since.

I was happy for Jacob, glad that he had finally found someone who seemed to be so right for him; I couldn't wait to meet her. I wanted nothing but the best for Jacob and for some reason I felt like the two of them were made for each other by the way Jacob described her, it was so full of love and devotion even though they had only just met. I just hoped that Jacob wasn't going to get hurt.

I quickly sent Jacob a text back on the way to work.

_Sure, can't wait! See the two of you Saturday. X B._

"Good morning Bella!" I was greeted by Angela the moment I stepped through the office doors. "You look happy, did something happen?" she asked curiously.

"Hi Ang, no nothing happened, I'm just going to see Jacob again this weekend, it has been too long since I've seen him," I told her honestly.

"That's great! I always liked Jacob," she replied cheerfully.

We chatted for a bit on our way up, until we had to both go our separate ways to our desks.

"Good morning Bella," Adam said kindly the moment he noticed me.

I smiled back at him enthusiastically, none of the feelings I had had for him during the first week had remained, it must have just been my nerves, and greeted him back, "Good morning Adam, how was your weekend?" I asked politely.

"It was uneventful, a welcome change," he replied with a smile, "How about yours?"

"Quiet as well, just the way I like it," I answered cheerfully.

"Good. Well, I have an assignment for you but if you say that it's too much or if you think it's too soon you can just tell me and I'll assign it to someone else alright?" Adam changed from cheerful to serious suddenly.

"Sure, what is it?" I asked, a little worried by the tone of his voice.

"Don't worry, I wouldn't give it to you if I didn't think you could handle it, but one of our reporters suddenly quit, personal problems, so we're a bit understaffed at the moment when it comes to experienced reporters and every one we do have has already been assigned to something, so I thought maybe you would like to take over the assignment he had been working on before he left? It's about the mayor, he's up for reelection and he's giving us the first official interview. Do you think you can handle it?" Adam explained in a rush.

"That's a big responsibility," I told him hesitantly.

"Like I said, I wouldn't give it to you if I didn't think you could handle it, I've read your work and you're doing a good job here so far, you won't be completely alone, there are always people around to help you here, so you can ask any of them for advice and my door is always open as well." Adam sounded sincere and the calm tone of his voice made me more confident.

I was going to have to do this sometime right? This is what I wanted so I might as well start now.

"Err, alright, I'll do it," I told him, trying to sound convincing.

Adam wasn't completely fooled. "Don't worry about it Bella, you'll do great," he told me again before handing me a huge folder. "This is everything the other reporter used for preparation. You can take a look at it; it might help you. The interview is Wednesday so start preparing," he finished with a smile before walking away.

"Thank you!" I yelled after him.

I was going to do real work already; I was one step closer to being an investigative reporter. I just hoped I wasn't going to blow this.

During lunch I told Angela of my new assignment and she was extremely excited about it.

"This is amazing! You're so lucky! Do you know how long it usually takes before the new reporter gets an interesting story to work on? It took me months to get my first break and that was only on the low crime rate in Seattle at that time, I have only recently begun working on my own story ideas," she had told me enthusiastically.

"I'm not sure I'm ready for it though, there's a reason it usually takes so long for a reporter to go out on their own stories, maybe I should just tell Adam that I'm not ready for that and that he should give it to someone else," I told her doubtfully.

"Are you kidding? You need to take this opportunity! What do you have to lose? If you don't do a great job, although I'm sure you will, Adam will just give you some more smaller assignments before giving you another chance but if you don't take this opportunity now, who knows how long it'll be before you'll get another chance?" she exclaimed.

"But I don't want to mess up the mayor's piece, that's a big deal!" I told her panicky.

"You'll do fine! Adam has faith in you! And so do I! You'll be great Bella; your pieces are really good! You just need to get a little more confident, you'll do great, trust me!"

It was hard to go against Angela when she was pleading like this, sometimes I thought she would have made one hell of a lawyer with the speeches she could sometimes give me.

"Thanks Ang," I told her gratefully.

"Sure, just remember me once you're a world famous reporter," she said with a wink.

I giggled and we spent the rest of lunch analyzing our weekends.

Angela had really cheered me up with her speech but the moment I got back to my desk and started preparing for the interview I was overwhelmed by the amount of preparation the other reporter had put into this story already. I didn't want to make a fool of myself so I studied every detail of the mayor's campaign harder than I had ever studied for any test in school or university.

I had called Jacob Tuesday evening to tell him about my upcoming article and the preparations for it and he was just as excited as Angela had been.

"That's huge Bells!" he had told me enthusiastically.

"If I don't screw it up," I had replied.

"You won't, I have complete confidence in you!"

"I get that a lot lately, the only person who does not have complete faith in me, is _me_!" I told him annoyed.

"That's not important," he told me jokingly and it calmed me down a little.

I realized that if so many people thought I was able to do it, then maybe they were right and I could actually do it.

I spent an hour on the phone with Jacob and at the end of the conversation he had me convinced that I could do it. After we had hung up the phone I immediately went to bed. I laid in my bed for a while, staring at the ceiling and thinking about tomorrow, my heart was racing in my chest and I couldn't seem to calm myself. It wasn't that I was so scared to screw it up anymore, I was just nervous for the sake of being nervous it seemed. Luckily, after a while the nervousness disappeared and I fell asleep peacefully.

I woke up Wednesday morning completely rested. I counted my blessings that I hadn't been up all night worrying the moment I stepped in front of the mirror, my hair wasn't going to take me hours to straighten out and there weren't huge black circles underneath my eyes the way there normally were if I'd been worried about something. At least I could manage to look like half a professional when I met the mayor.

The meeting with the mayor went by quickly and for some reason I had felt completely at ease the entire time. There had not been a moment where I had stuttered or where I had trouble finding the right words. It seemed to come quite natural and the mayor was a pleasant man to talk to it turned out. He had at least convinced me to vote for him.

"It was a pleasure to meet you Miss Swan," the mayor said the moment I rose from my seat.

I shook his hand. "Thank you for the interview sir," I replied politely.

After the interview I went back to my desk to type out the story while it was still fresh in my mind. I had the feeling that it was going to be a good piece and I was proud of myself for handling that interview so much better than I had expected I would.

"Bella, can I talk to you for a moment?" Adam called from his office.

The good mood I was in completely vanished and I was left with an anxious feeling that something was wrong. I reluctantly walked towards Adam's office and shut the door behind me the moment I was inside.

"I just wanted to ask you how the story is coming along," Adam said kindly.

"I think it's going well," I replied hesitantly.

"Good, I just got off the phone with the mayor," he said.

_Oh no! I had messed up!_ My thought started screaming at me and I wanted to open my mouth to apologize, to tell him that I apparently wasn't ready for this kind of work yet and that I was extremely sorry.

"I'm so…" I started.

"He was very pleased with you Bella," Adam interrupted me.

"Excuse me?" I asked confused.

"The mayor said that he had enjoyed your interview very much and that if we wanted to do another piece on him, I should definitely send you to do it," he explained with a smile.

"Wow, really?" I asked, taken aback.

"Yes, good job Bella! I can't wait to read the article," Adam said kindly.

"Thank you," I said quickly before walking out of his office.

I had told Angela the good news and she had been ecstatic, she had even squealed in her enthusiasm, something you wouldn't hear often from Angela.

"I told you so!" she had said enthusiastically and I couldn't do anything but agree with her, she had indeed told me that it would all work out fine.

Jake was just as enthusiastic about the news that evening and I was very happy that I had two such wonderful friends. Their support meant a lot to me and I couldn't be more happy than I was right now.

I finished the article on Thursday and I was very pleased with the outcome. The fact that the mayor had liked my interview had given me a boost of confidence and I was sure that the article would be a good one as well. I handed in the article to Adam and he said that he had a moment to look at it that exact moment. I knew he was very busy so it was a very nice gesture that he took the time to look at it straight away.

I was packing my bag to go home again the moment Adam walked by my desk.

"Very good article Bella, I knew you could do it! I'll see you tomorrow," he said kindly and I beamed at him.

"Thank you, see you tomorrow," I replied with a little thick voice.

This was the first step into the future of a great crime reporter and I couldn't be more excited about my future.

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A/N**: Well, that's it for today's update, I hope you enjoyed it :) I'll be back tomorrow. In the meantime I would love it if you could leave a review :)

Xxx

Thari


	3. Friendship at Risk

_**A/N**__: Well, early update today because I'm working and I'm not sure when I'll have time the rest of today to do it otherwise :) Hope you all don't mind ;) Thanks a lot to those who have reviewed, __**Shirley**__, __**Robsten Lover 223**__ and __**Yeye85**__, you guys rock! :)_

_To Shirley: I like MacDonald's too so don't be ashamed ;) I'd consider that an awesome dinner as well ;) I was also pretty much done with the whole Bella can't do anything right thing so I'm glad you like her this way ;)_

_To Robsten Lover 223: Thanks so much for your sweet words :) I'm glad you think this story is so great! :) Hope I won't disappoint you ;)_

_To everyone: Enjoy the third chapter :) And for those of you who were wondering: Edward will show up tomorrow :) Enjoy and let me know what you think! :)_

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Friendship ****at Risk**

The following weeks passed by quickly and I didn't have much time to relax. I wrote story after story for the newspaper. I was mainly focusing on politics right now and especially affairs concerning the mayor, it was amazing how quickly I had become an important journalist but I was a long way from where I wanted to be still. I hadn't had the opportunity to investigate any crimes, not even the smaller things like thefts or anything. Adam knew where I wanted to end up but he said I first had to master some reporter skills before I could even start that path. I had accepted it and was working as hard as I could at always improving myself. I was already a much better reporter than I had been a few weeks back and I couldn't help but feel a little proud of myself.

"As you should feel!" Charlie had told me on one of my visits back home.

I rarely came back to Forks anymore, I was too busy writing my stories or looking for new insights or leads. I felt guilty about leaving Charlie to fend for himself completely but he said he understood and that he was rarely home these days either.

I felt even worse about hardly ever seeing Jacob. I had visited him a couple of weeks ago and I had met his girlfriend Leah, I wasn't an immediate fan but I could tell from the looks she gave Jacob that the two of them belonged together.

It didn't help that Jacob seemed to be keeping a secret from me, one that Leah was obviously in on, because I had caught them exchanging meaningful glances every now and then and Jacob would dodge some of my questions by trying to distract me. Plus that Jacob seemed very buff all of a sudden, he had grown more than I had thought was humanly possible in the few weeks I hadn't seen him. He was stronger and bigger and even though it didn't look bad on him, he looked different, much older and maybe even wiser, than he had always done in the time I had known him.

When I had asked him how he had gotten so big - especially since I remembered from Biology that around the age of 21 boys were done growing - Jacob had replied rather strangely.

"Haven't you ever heard of working out?" he had said in a rather strained voice, his eyes had been hard, distant, as if he was regretting something and I knew he was hiding something from me.

However, Leah didn't seem to find his sudden growth spurt strange at all. She had also known Jacob his entire life and although they hadn't been close I was sure she had noticed it too. And when I had talked to Charlie that evening he had also noticed that Jacob was extraordinarily huge even if he had been working out.

It didn't help his case much that I had come to know Jacob as a rather lazy person when it came to working out and I knew he loved nothing more than sitting on the couch watching TV while someone else prepared some food for him.

I cared too much for Jacob to let this sudden change go and I noticed that he had been avoiding me ever since I had asked him about the complete flip he had done in the few weeks we had been apart. Whenever I would call him now he would give me very short answers, if he gave me any at all. He wasn't the carefree Jacob he used to be anymore, and even though I knew he was supposed to be a grown-up now and everything, it was still very out of character for him to behave like this. I would have liked nothing more than to blame Leah for all the changes that had been going on, especially since it seemed to have started around the same time the two of them had gotten together but somehow my instinct told me that it wasn't her fault.

But I couldn't figure out what would be so important to Jacob and such a secret that he wouldn't even be able to tell me, his best friend in the whole world. I still was, wasn't I?

This evening was again one of those evenings where I was aimlessly wandering through my apartment, worrying about Jacob and our relationship. I didn't want to lose my best friend and I felt like he was trying to push me away every time I tried to get closer again. I had been worrying about the same thing for a few weeks now and I couldn't seem to let it go but on the other hand I had never really found the courage to really act on it again either.

It was Friday today, which meant that I didn't have to be at work for two days. I was sick of doing nothing and not getting anywhere with my best friend and I decided that now was the time to take action.

"Dad?" I said as soon as Charlie answered the phone.

"Hi Bells, is everything alright?" Charlie replied worried.

I didn't quite understand his worried tone but I assumed it was just because he wasn't expecting me to call, which made me feel guilty because I didn't call him as often as I would like, I just didn't have the time.

"I'm fine dad, I was just wondering if it would be okay if I came home and slept over this weekend?" I replied quickly.

"Sure kiddo, whatever you need, I'll see you in a bit then. Are you sure everything is alright?" he asked one more time.

"Yes, it's fine, I'm just having some trouble sleeping here that's all, see you soon," I said before hanging up the phone and quickly gathering my stuff so I could leave for Forks as soon as possible.

Not much later I was in Charlie's house and I had thrown my stuff into my old room. It always felt very safe to be in this house again for some reason. Even tonight, when I had one sole purpose for being here; discovering what Jacob was holding back from me.

"Dad, I'm just going to say hi to Jacob alright? I don't know at what time I'll be back but don't wait up for me," I said quickly as I dashed out the door.

"Sure Bells have fun," Charlie replied absentmindedly without breaking his gaze from the television screen, which was currently displaying some baseball game or other.

I drove my old, rusty truck to La Push as quickly as it would go and within fifteen minutes I was in front of the Black's residence. Billy was already waiting on the porch to greet me; I guess my red monster was hard to miss.

"Hi Bella, what a surprise, it's nice to see you though," he greeted me kindly.

Billy was Charlie's best friend in the whole world, he was a nice man and I had always been very fond of him, his house had been like a second home to me, or third depending on whether or not you'd count my mother's home in Phoenix, ever since I had moved to Forks a few years back. Billy had always treated me like one of his own daughters.

"Hi Billy, it's good to see you too!" I replied enthusiastically. Something about seeing Billy always made me smile and remember the good times I had spent in this very house. "Is Jake around?"

"He just came back from Leah's; I believe he's in the garage."

"Thanks Billy!" I said quickly before walking in the general direction of the garage.

"Well, this sure brings back memories," I said jokingly while I entered the garage and found Jacob lying under the car he was currently building from scratch.

"Ouch! Damn it!" I heard Jacob curse after I had heard a loud bang, assuming he had hit his head against the bottom of the car because I startled him. He slowly crawled out from underneath the vehicle and glared at me. "Damn it Bella! Don't scare me like that!" He sounded really angry and his tone made me flinch.

"I'm glad you're happy to see me too!" I replied sarcastically.

"Right," was Jacob's only reply. "What are you doing here?" His tone still wasn't friendly and I was beginning to feel like it was a lost cause by now.

"Can't I visit my best friend anymore?" I asked a little hurt. "Have you by any chance seen him anywhere?" I added bitterly.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Jacob spat at me.

"_That_ is exactly what I mean, your attitude right there! What's going on with you Jake?" My tone softened and I whispered the last question.

"I don't know what you're talking about Bella, there's nothing going on with me!" he said a little more calmly but it still wasn't friendly.

"You never used to be this bitter and I thought you were always glad to see me. And it's not just your attitude! I came here because I had the feeling I was losing my best friend and I don't want that! I'm worried about you Jake, you're different, distant and hostile, is it something I did?" I asked, not trying to hide the hurt in my voice anymore.

"You didn't do anything Bella, there's nothing going on, please just let it go?" he was begging now.

"You're my best friend Jacob," I stated simply.

"I know," he replied softly.

"What's going on? Please, just tell me," I pleaded.

"I can't tell you Bella! Just drop it please! And it would be best if you didn't come around here anymore either, it's not good for either of us!" His tone was harsh again and when I looked into his eyes he quickly dropped them to the floor, but not before I could detect the hurt in them.

"Don't do this," I pleaded with him softly.

"I don't have a choice," he replied gravely.

"Is it because of Leah?" I asked before I even realized it myself.

Jacob's head shot up and he was glaring at me now. "It's not her fault!" he said sharply.

"But she has something to do with it?" I pried.

"Let it go Bella!"

"So she knows what's going on then!" It wasn't a question, I knew the answer already.

"Yes," he replied shortly.

"Why?" I asked, my voice thick and my eyes prickling with the tears that were about to spill out of them.

"She's my soulmate Bella!" he replied simply as if that justified everything he did.

"What am I then? Just some random girl? You've been my best friend for God knows how long! You've been with Leah only a few weeks! You used to be able to tell me everything," I spat at him, angry and hurt.

"I know Bells, just let it go, I can't explain and we can't be friends anymore, just leave and don't come back please!" he begged, his expression mirroring my own pain, "It's not safe," he whispered before turning his attention back to his car.

"What do you mean?" I asked but I knew I wasn't going to get a reply from Jacob anymore. Tears started flowing down my cheek at high speed and I couldn't stop the sob coming out of my mouth.

I saw Jacob hang his head and clenching his fists but he didn't move; he didn't seem like he could.

I slowly started backing away from the garage and headed back towards my truck. I walked past Billy's house and looked towards the door. I wouldn't come here anymore, Jacob didn't want me to. But what had he meant by it wasn't safe?

"Bella?" Billy approached me in his wheelchair and I looked at him in surprise, the tears still streaming down my face. "Are you alright?" he asked worriedly.

"I-I'm fine," I stuttered.

"What's wrong?" he asked, not fooled by my previous statement.

"I'm just confused," I mumbled after a moment of silence.

"Do you want to come inside for a bit? I might be able to help you," Billy offered.

"I'm not sure Jake would like that very much," I replied sadly.

"He's always working in that garage of his, he won't be in for another few hours so we should be safe," Billy said jokingly.

"Alright," I gave in quickly; maybe Billy would be able to provide me with some answers.

I sat down on the couch in the small living room and Billy stationed himself across from me, waiting for me to begin the conversation.

"What's wrong?" he asked again when it showed that I wasn't going to start.

"I don't know, Jacob has been acting strangely lately and I came here to get some answers but instead he was even worse than usual and he sent me away mumbling something along the lines of it not being safe for us to be friends and he asked me not to come here anymore. I don't know what I did wrong!" I exclaimed feeling a stab of pain in my heart.

"Jacob is going through a difficult phase right now and he needs his friends but he's right when he says it isn't safe for you to be here right now," Billy said in a grave, mature tone.

"Why?" I asked confused.

"I can't tell you that Bella, you'll have to figure that out on your own if you want your friendship to last but there are some things going on at La Push right now and it would be best for you not to be around here," Billy answered vaguely.

"I don't understand," I replied after a while.

"I know, and I can't explain, but I'm sure you and Jacob will find a way to get through this, you've been friends for too long," Billy said a little more cheerfully.

"I hope so, I guess I should go now then," I said while rising from my seat.

"Alright, sleep tight Bella, and I'm sure I'll see you again soon!" Billy said kindly.

"I hope so," I muttered while walking out of the front door towards my truck.

The next morning I woke up with an uneasy feeling in my stomach, I had been no closer to figuring out the secret and I had no idea what Billy had meant when he had said that there were some things going on around La Push that made it unsafe for me to come there. I had always had the impression that La Push was one of the safest places in the world, I had never actually heard of something bad going on there so I couldn't begin to imagine what would be so dangerous.

I decided to ask Charlie what he knew about the danger Billy had talked about.

"Good morning dad," I greeted Charlie as cheerfully as I could manage after the few hours of sleep I had had the night before.

"Morning kiddo," he replied without looking up from his newspaper.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Sure Bells, fire away," Charlie answered, a little surprised, as he put his newspaper aside.

"Do you know of something going on around the La Push area? I was over there last night and Billy said it wasn't the safest place to be right now," I summarized what I had heard last night.

"Well I have heard of some strange disappearances and animal attacks near La Push but I didn't think it was actually that serious, people go into parts of the woods that are known to have bears and other animals by themselves every now and then and that could end badly. But if Billy says it isn't safe then it must be something more that I don't know about," Charlie said deep in thought.

"Disappearances?" I asked a little confused.

"Yes, some campers and hikers went missing in the woods; I'm not sure how many actually. I should really give Billy a call, even though it's not my jurisdiction but I am curious now."

"Thanks dad," I said unsure if he even heard me. So there was definitely something strange going on and I needed to figure out what it was in order to save my friendship with Jacob.

I knew enough about investigative reporting by now to know that I wasn't going to find my answers just this one weekend here but I had to start somewhere. I went back upstairs and turned on the laptop I had bought for my work. I started searching through articles in local newspapers as well as newspapers of nearby towns to see if there had been any stories about strange disappearances or animal attacks in the area.

To my great surprise there had been several small articles dedicated to animal attacks, in which the victims were found somewhere in the woods, drained of blood completely, several weeks after they had gone missing. But there was not much more information than just a description of the victims and the way they had died, but for some reason I felt that there was more to the story than just hikers and campers that were being attacked by animals. I didn't know of any animal that would completely drain the victim of blood and I found it highly suspicious that it would always take several weeks before the victims were discovered even if it was in an area that was top priority when it came to looking for missing people.

I needed to know, now more than ever, what was going on here and why this was happening. This could be my big break into investigative reporting as well as getting my best friend back, although I couldn't quite see where he would fit into all of this and why he would be acting so strangely towards me, maybe it was because he was trying to keep me out of trouble, but why? What could be so dangerous that we couldn't even be friends anymore? I was going to get to the bottom of this.

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A/N**__: Well, that's it for chapter three :) I'll be back tomorrow with the fourth chapter :) I'm not sure at what time I'll be able to upload though since I have to work all day but I promise there will be a chapter! :) Let me know what you thought! :) _

_Xxx_

_Thari_


	4. Old Legends and New Faces

_**A/N**__: Hi there, here's the new chapter :) I'm not really in a talkative mood - crappy day at work… - so this is all you're going to get ;) Aside from the usual: thanks for reviewing __**Shirley**__! And thanks to everyone who has added this story to their__ Favorites__ or Story Alerts :) It means a lot to me! :) _

_Also I heard that Fanfic was being difficult yesterday and that at a certain point my story wasn't even online anymore but I hope that's all fixed now :) I would like to say let me know if it isn't but there would really be no point in that since then this chapter wouldn't be visible either and you wouldn't read this ;) _

_Oh and like I said yesterday already... Edward will be in this chapter :) For those of you who were already missing him ;)  
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_Well… so much for me not being in a talkative mood :P But this is really it ;) Enjoy and reviews make my day! :) _

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_**Old ****Legends and New Faces**

I spent almost the entire day on the internet, searching for articles and background information, I googled every sentence I could think of that was even remotely relevant for my research and when I typed in "Drained of blood" I found mostly sites referring to things like vampires and more of that superstitious nonsense. It didn't help me at all, I couldn't find any animal that would actually drain a person of their blood completely and after the twentieth vampire link I was sent to I was about to give up but then I noticed a little link at the bottom of the site that said "wolves" and I was instantly reminded of one of the stories Jacob used to tell me about his tribe.

We had been at a bonfire with his friends when we were 17 and they had all been sharing stories with each other, mostly Quileute legends that their grandparents and parents had told them when they had been little. None of the boys really believed the stories but they made for good entertainment for the evening. I didn't listen very carefully until it was Jacob's turn to share a story. He told us about the Quileute warriors who were descendents from wolves. I didn't remember much about the story other than the fact that there were some warriors who could actually transform into wolves, like werewolves, I had always found that particular part very interesting, not that I bought any of it, but it sounded very cool to be able to do that.

Jacob had continued his story about the mortal enemies of the werewolves, "The Cold Ones" as he had called them, vampires as we would call them, they fed on humans, draining them of their blood, they were highly dangerous and when the warriors had encountered them, it had become their mission to destroy any who trespassed on their land. However, I remember Jacob adding that there were some, not many, that did not feed on humans, or at least tried not to, they supposedly didn't live far from La Push and the chief at that time had made a treaty with these "Cold Ones", as long as they wouldn't feed off of humans, they could stay and they would live in peace, although they were never allowed to set foot on the reservation.

I didn't put much faith in the old legends of the tribe but I had always found stories like that interesting. I knew it could never be real but I thought it was a nice coincidence that all of this was happening so close to where the legends say they had encountered vampires before. But there had to be some logical explanation for it all and I was determined to find it.

A knock on my bedroom door startled me and I forgot to close the site I was currently looking at so my face turned bright red when Jacob walked into my room and shifted his gaze rapidly between me and the screen of my laptop.

"Werewolves?" he asked while raising one eyebrow at me. He looked rather amused, not as angry as he had done yesterday.

"Just research," I said trying to sound indifferent.

"For what exactly?" he asked suspiciously.

"An article I'm writing," I bluffed.

Jacob knew me too well. "What kind of article?" he pried.

"About uuhm… About…" I started stuttering but gave up as I realized Jacob never bought any of my lies. "Fine, I was doing some research on the danger you had mentioned yesterday. Billy said that I had to figure it out on my own so I'm trying alright? Charlie said there have been some mysterious deaths and disappearances in the area lately and I've been looking for articles that can give me more information. I was googling some phrases that were connected to what I had found in several articles, one of which was "Drained of Blood" which lead me to vampires and consequently I found this site about werewolves, apparently the mortal enemies of vampires, and it made me think of some of the legends you used to tell me about your tribe," I rushed out my explanation while blushing heavily along the way.

"Right," Jacob said, sounding truly interested.

"Listen, about yesterday," I said trying to change the subject away from my weird research.

"Yes?"

"Why exactly did you say that it wasn't safe for me at La Push anymore? Does it have something to do with these disappearances?" I blurted out quickly.

"Yes, we need to figure out what's going on and we need to stop it!" Jacob said, strangely talking as if he was personally involved in the investigation.

"What do you mean 'we'?" I asked suspiciously.

"Well, everyone really," Jacob responded, dodging my question.

"I don't understand," I said.

I really started to hate talking to Jacob; he only made me feel out of the loop more with every time we spoke.

"It's alright, you will, I'm sure, but for now, just stay out of danger, go back to Seattle and I'll call you when it's all a little better around here," he said seriously.

"Are you kidding? I want to help!" I said shocked that he would think I would run if people I loved were in danger.

"You can't help Bella! This is something we have to figure out on our own!" Jacob said cryptically once again.

"Why did you come here?" I said a little agitated that he was again avoiding my questions.

"I don't know really, I shouldn't have come! Please just listen to me, trust me and go back to Seattle!" he pleaded with me.

"Trust you? You won't tell me anything! You're being cryptic the entire time and quite frankly it's pissing me off! You need to tell me what's going on and I'm not leaving!" I said angrily.

"You do realize you have to get back to your job anyways right?" he said rather amused, thinking he was winning this argument.

"Not for a while, I've just discovered a very interesting story and I'm sure my boss wouldn't mind me staying here for the fieldwork," I replied triumphantly.

"You can't!" Jacob exclaimed.

"You won't tell me what's going on so I'll figure it out on my own! Now if you'll excuse me, I have some work to do," I said in my most final tone.

"You're in way over your head Bella!" Jacob warned me.

When I didn't respond he turned around and walked away.

I was fighting the tears in my eyes as I turned my attention back to my laptop.

In the afternoon I had gathered as much background information as I could and I had to say that the vampire thing started to sound more and more plausible with each new article I found. I knew it was crazy to even consider those superstitious stories but from all the articles I had read the only thing I had learned was that it couldn't have been an animal but I had never seen a human capable of doing things like this either. It didn't make sense to me and I was desperate to find out what was going on.

I knew I was going to need permission from Adam to work on this story from here before I could actually invest all my time in this. If he would deny my request, I would have to go back to Seattle tomorrow and I wouldn't be able to come back here to do more research for a while because I would undoubtedly be busy with another story. I decided to give Adam a call right away and hope for the best.

"Hello?" Adam answered his phone after the first ring.

My heart was pounding in my chest, I was in no position to request a story this big, nor did I have any guarantee that Adam wouldn't find me extremely ignorant or naïve if I thought this was a story but it was definitely worth a shot.

"Hi Adam? It's Bella," I started, trying to sound confident.

"Hey Bella, are you already becoming such a workaholic that you need to check in with me even on your days off?" Adam joked.

I let out a nervous giggle before gathering all my courage and starting again. "Well, actually I am calling on work related business, see I'm in Forks right now with my father and I have noticed there are some strange things going on here, actually in the entire area," I said quickly.

"What do you mean strange things?" Adam asked, at least feigning to sound intrigued.

"Well, people are disappearing and then they are found several weeks later, their bodies completely drained of blood," I said while blushing heavily, knowing how stupid I must sound.

"And the reason you're calling me is because you want to investigate it and write a story on it?" Adam asked calmly.

I blushed even deeper and nodded my head slowly. Then I realized he couldn't see me from all the way over in Seattle and I was going to have to answer him the normal way, by actually saying it out loud. "Yes, that was kind of what I was hoping for," I admitted quietly.

"It sounds dangerous though," Adam said thoughtfully.

"My father is a policemen, I can take care of myself," I said faking confidence, it was true that Charlie was chief of police but hardly anything ever happened in Forks and most of his days he would spend playing cards with the guys at the office, add to that the fact that I had never shown any interest in his work and thus had never asked him to teach me anything and we have a very poor lie.

"Are you sure? It might be better if you would have a partner on this though," Adam said hesitantly.

"I can handle it," I blurted out.

"Alright, if you think you're up for it, but you have to promise me you'll be very careful and if it's getting too dangerous or anything you have to let me know so I can re-evaluate the situation and maybe send someone else to write the story. But good work on finding the story and you have just landed yourself your very first investigative reporting job!" Adam ended enthusiastically and I jumped up from my bed in excitement almost breaking my laptop on the floor in the process.

"Thank you so much!" I exclaimed.

Not long after that we said our goodbyes and I was ready to start my very own investigative reporting job. I couldn't have been more excited.

There was a soft knock on my door again and in my excitement I yelled "come in" a little too loudly.

"Are you alright?" Charlie asked tentatively while peeking around the door.

"I'm fine, I just got this new story I'm allowed to work on, is it okay if I stay here while I work on my story?" I asked softly.

"Sure Bells, you know you can always stay here as long as you like!" Charlie replied enthusiastically.

"Thanks dad," I replied sincerely. "Did you want to ask something?" I asked, since Charlie never came near my room unless he had a question for me.

"I was wondering if you have time to pick up some groceries for me, I'm going fishing now and I realized I don't have anything to eat in the fridge anymore and there are some other things I need. If you mind I can cancel the fishing trip and do it myself though," Charlie added quickly.

"No that's fine dad, really," I said quickly. "You go have fun; I'll go to the store. What do you need?"

Charlie gave me the list of items he needed from the store and I quickly made my way over there to get it.

It had been a while since I had been to the supermarket in Forks and for some reason they had changed the entire layout of the store in the meantime. Nothing was where it used to be and that made it difficult for me to quickly find what I needed. I looked around the store for what seemed like hours and I hardly paid any attention to what, or who, was in front of me, so it was to be expected that I would at some point bump into something.

When I did it felt like I had walked into a wall and I couldn't stop myself from falling to the floor and landing straight on my butt. Luckily I had put my shopping cart aside just before, it saved me some time not having to pick up every item I had stored in there. I looked up dazed, internally cursing myself for not paying better attention but I was happy that I didn't seem to have hurt anyone else in the process, I had just bumped into the rack, or so I thought.

My gaze followed a pair of shoes, up to a pair of legs with jeans on them, after which it made its way over a torso with a tight black t-shirt around it and finally my eyes landed on the face of a boy who looked at me with a worried expression. I first noticed his straight jaw, his straight nose and the paleness of his skin. It seemed like all his facial features were perfectly symmetric. My gaze moved on to his lips and they were full and for some reason very attractive. Finally, I noticed his eyes; they were a golden color and they stared into mine. It felt like he was staring straight into my soul.

I gasped at the beauty of the man in front of me and for a moment my mind was blank. Then reality caught up with me and I realized that it hadn't been a wall I had bumped into but it had been this godlike creature and I blushed a deep red.

"Are you alright miss?" the guy asked me worriedly in a voice that reminded me of velvet.

"Err," was my brilliant response.

"Let me help you," the man offered while extending his hand towards me.

I deliberated for a moment, still dazzled by the beauty of this man. He was bending over slightly so I could easily reach his hand and I could now see his hair easily, it had a bronze color and it was a bit messy but for some reason I was convinced it would feel like silk and I had to fight the urge to reach up and try to touch it, just for a little bit.

"Miss?" the guy said again.

"Right," I muttered while blushing even further and grabbing his hand tentatively.

His hand was smooth and hard, it felt cold, much colder than normal, and it reminded me a little of marble. The man gently tugged on my arm and before I knew it I was erect again and I was staring into this beautiful stranger's eyes again.

"Thanks, I-I'm sorry," I stuttered the moment his hand released mine, I internally cursed myself for being such an idiot.

"That's quite alright," he replied politely, "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," I responded shyly.

"Good." He seemed satisfied. "I'm Edward Cullen," he introduced himself while extending his hand towards me one more time, this time for me to shake it.

I gladly took his hand, eager for another chance to touch him.

"I'm Isabella Swan," I responded. "I mean Bella," I muttered after a short pause.

I didn't know why I had introduced myself as Isabella, I never did that, I wanted everyone to call me Bella but for some reason I felt the urge to tell this guy everything about me, including my entire first name apparently.

"That's a beautiful name," he said sounding sincere.

"Thanks," I managed to choke out.

Then the guy named Edward smiled an uneven smile at me and my breath got caught in my throat again, he was just too beautiful to be true.

For some reason his expression changed and he seemed to be focussing very hard on something while staring into my eyes. I felt a little uncomfortable but I couldn't seem to break away from his gaze, it was just too intense.

"I haven't seen you around here before," Edward broke the silence after a while.

"My father lives here, Chief Charlie Swan, I moved in with him when I was 17 years old, before that I had been living with my mother but she remarried and needed some time with her new husband. I lived with my dad for the rest of High School and my entire College career, I only recently moved out because I found a job in Seattle and I'm living there now in an apartment. But I sometimes visit my father on weekends," I rushed out the short version of my life story to this complete stranger and I internally slapped myself the moment the words were out. This beautiful guy did not want to hear my life story; I shouldn't bore him with this!

Edward nodded his head in understanding.

"What about you? Are you from around here?" I asked bluntly.

"No I'm not, I just moved here a few weeks ago with my family, we live just outside of Forks," he explained.

"A few weeks ago?" I asked surprised.

"Yes, the house had been empty for a while before we found it but I think we moved in around 6 or 7 weeks ago," he said thoughtfully.

For some reason I had found that particular bit of information very interesting, I couldn't quite figure out why yet but I kept repeating to myself over and over that he had moved here 6 or 7 weeks ago.

"Edward, who is this?" a small girl with short, spiky, dark hair said to Edward while she danced towards us. She had the same kind of golden colored eyes as Edward and her skin was just as pale and smooth as his was. She was also very beautiful and I felt very plain next to the both of them with my boring brown eyes and boring brown hair that I could never quite get to stay the way I wanted it to.

"Alice, this is Bella Swan, chief Swan's daughter, and Bella, this is my sister, Alice," Edward introduced the two of us.

"It's very nice to meet you Bella!" The beautiful girl named Alice said enthusiastically.

"Nice to meet you too!" I replied unable to stop myself from beaming back at the girl.

"We should get going again," Edward said, "It was very nice meeting you Bella, I hope we can meet again soon," he said sincerely.

"Nice to meet you too," I replied, mimicking his polite tone without consciously deciding to do so.

"Bye Bella, I'm sure we'll get to know each other better very soon," Alice said cheerfully and for some reason I thought I saw Edward throwing Alice a warning glare but I couldn't be certain because before I knew it he had looked away from her again.

"Sure, bye," I replied lamely.

Edward smiled at me one more time before they turned around and left me behind breathless and confused.

The rest of the day I couldn't seem to be able to get that beautiful stranger, Edward Cullen, out of my head, and I decided to ask Charlie about him and his family during dinner.

"Dad? Do you know an Edward Cullen?" I asked Charlie after a long moment of silently enjoying dinner that evening.

"Dr. Cullen's son?" Charlie asked.

"I don't know, I think so," I replied uncertain. "What do you know about them?"

"Not much, I know that Dr. Cullen and his family moved here because he had been offered a position in the hospital in Forks and they moved in to this house just outside of Forks. Talk around town is that Dr. Cullen and his wife have 5 children, all adopted. They moved here a few weeks back as I recall. I haven't really met any of them though," Charlie explained. "Why do you want to know?" He raised his eyebrows in surprise.

"I literally ran into Edward Cullen in the store this afternoon and he had told me he was new in town, so I wondered what you knew about him and his family."

"From what I hear they're good people but they very much keep to themselves," Charlie said while shrugging.

We didn't discuss the topic any further and that night in bed Edward Cullen was all I could think of, there were just some things about him that seemed strange, but that wasn't the reason I wanted nothing more than to find out everything there was about this boy, he was so extremely handsome and gorgeous it hardly seemed possible and every time I thought about it my heart made a little jump and my stomach filled with butterflies; I was intrigued by him to say the least. I fell asleep after an hour of thinking of nothing but Edward Cullen; I drifted away with his image in my mind and a smile on my face, perfectly happy.

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A/N**__: That's it for another chapter :) I'll be back tomorrow again with a new update :) Perhaps a little bit early depending on my work but I guess early would be better than not at all right?:P See you tomorrow!  
_

_Xxx_

_Thari_


	5. Unexpected Visit

_**A/N**__: Hi there, I'm back ;) Here's chapter 5 :) Fanfic is being a b*tch! Deleting my story and deleting my reviews… VERY annoying but don't worry I sent them an email ;) With all the power that I possess I'm sure it'll be fixed SOON ;) Thanks for reviewing, __**Shirley**__ and __**Robsten Lover 223**__ (and if I missed some because of fanfic: SORRY NOT MY FAULT! :D) You guys rock my socks! :D _

_To Shirley: Your review cracked me up! :D and thanks soooo much for the hugs :D They made my day! :D I can see why you confused our normal emails with a review ;) Just so you know: you rock! :D _

_To Robsten Lover 223: Thanks for the thumbs up :D They put a big smile on my face! :D _

_For all you Alice lovers, you'll love this ;) Let me know what you think and most of all enjoy ;)_

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Unexpected Visit**

I woke up with an uneasy feeling, I couldn't quite remember what I had dreamt but I knew it was something important. I remembered feeling like everything had clicked during my dream and I needed now to remember what it had been exactly.

During my shower I worked through all the information I had gathered yesterday, trying to fit it all together, but I couldn't quite match it all. And then there was that beautiful stranger and his sister I had run into yesterday in the supermarket, Edward Cullen. I felt he played an important role in the matter but I was careful not to overthink it all when it came to him. I had noticed my unusual attraction to him and I realized that might have been why I wanted him to be part of what was going on right now so badly.

It wasn't until later in the afternoon that all the pieces really clicked. I had been behind my computer all day, looking at the same articles I had looked up earlier and even revisited the vampire sites, just to get the full picture I had had yesterday again.

_I was in a round meadow in the middle of the forest and I was completely alone. It was dark, probably night time already, and I heard strange sounds coming from different sides of the meadow. There was a gush of wind and before I knew it a boy was standing next to me, I recognized the bronze colored hair immediately and I couldn't help but stare into his beautiful face. _

I remembered the beginning of my dream and I realized the significance of it all. Edward and his family had moved here 6 to 7 weeks ago. I looked at all the articles I had been able to dig up about the disappearances and it seemed that it had started 7 weeks ago. I didn't have time to draw any conclusions because another memory of my dreams popped into my head.

_I heard a sound coming from behind me, I had my entire body angled towards Edward and for some reason he was glaring at something behind me, I figured he was glaring at the cause of the sound coming from behind me. I slowly turned around to see what was going on and who it was that had caused these strange sounds. To my surprise I noticed Jacob glaring at Edward, his stance showed that he was ready to pound on him._

Jacob! Jacob had started acting weird around four weeks ago but yesterday gave me the impression that the reason he was acting weird had something to do with these disappearances. So how did Jacob and Edward both fit into this?

For some reason I had the feeling that one of them was the bad guy and the other was trying to save the victims, from the stances they were in during my dream I would think that they were mortal enemies or something. Like werewolves and vampires. It was a strange situation but if I would stick to that analogy I would think werewolves would actually have to be the good guys in this scenario, but how is that possible? Aren't they just as dangerous as vampires normally?

The more I thought about it, the more confused I got. I didn't know what to think anymore. With the way Jacob has been acting lately and the fact that I was so intrigued by Edward I caught myself wanting to believe that Edward was the hero in this scenario and Jacob the villain. The moment I realized what I was saying I felt guilty and pushed the thoughts from my mind for now.

I needed to get to know Edward a little more, find out what his connection was to this all or if it was all just a coincidence that the moment he had moved here people started disappearing and dying. And I needed to speak with Jacob again, to tell him that I want to help in the investigation, I needed to figure out his part in this all as well.

Since I had no idea where I could find Edward and I wasn't bold enough to just go over to his house, if I would have been able to find it, I would start working on Jacob for now. I slowly made my way downstairs and the moment I was putting on my shoes the doorbell rang. It was strange because we hardly ever got any visitors here other than Jake or Billy and I was expecting neither of them.

I answered the door and there was Alice, she looked as cheerful and excited as she had done in the store.

"Alice!" I exclaimed, unable to hide my surprise.

"Hi Bella, someone told me where your father's house was so I decided to pay you a visit, I hope you don't mind," she added quickly.

"Of course not!" I said, still in a state of shock from her sudden visit.

Alice noticed the one shoe on my foot and the other in my hand. "Have I caught you at a bad time?" she asked a little disappointedly.

"No not at all, I was just about to visit a friend but that can wait, do you want to come in?" I asked while looking at the light rain falling on the floor.

"I'd like that but I don't want to interrupt," Alice said carefully.

"That's fine really, he wouldn't have been happy to see me anyways," I admitted before I realized what I was saying. For some reason it was very easy to talk to Alice.

"Why?" she asked without giving me the impression she was prying.

"Uhm, long story, he's just been acting weird lately, ever since he had his new girlfriend, I don't know. It'll be fine eventually," I tried to sound convincing.

"That's strange; you don't like the girlfriend very much then? Or she doesn't like you?" Alice asked concerned.

"I don't think it's either, I don't know. I wanted to go over there, _again_, to figure out what was going on but he isn't letting me in anymore. I used to be his best friend; we used to tell each other everything," I explained with sadness in my voice.

"How annoying!" Alice exclaimed with a horrified expression on her face.

"Anyways, come in, would you like something to drink?" I asked trying to lighten the mood a little.

"No thank you, I'm not thirsty," she said with a smile.

"Alright, well what can I do for you then?" I asked her curiously. I still found it quite strange that she had just appeared on my doorstep, since we had only met yesterday.

"Nothing really, I just don't know many people in the neighborhood and only being with my family can get quite annoying sometimes, so when I met you yesterday I was all excited and I just knew that we were going to be great friends and I couldn't wait to start that friendship. I wasn't sure when I was going to see you again so I decided to come here instead of waiting for us to run into each other again," she explained in a rush.

"Alright," I said hesitantly, I was happy that she was so enthusiastic and she seemed really nice, I could see the two of us becoming friends as well but it was just all a little sudden for me and I needed some time to adjust.

"Well, don't get too enthusiastic please!" Alice said in mock annoyance while rolling her eyes at me.

"Sorry, still a little taken aback," I admitted softly.

"That's fine! So what do you want to do?" she asked cheerful as ever.

"I don't know, this is Forks, there's not much to do around here now is there?" I replied with sadness in my voice.

"I guess you're right, and it's too late to go somewhere else and really do something fun I guess," Alice mumbled deep in thought. "Why don't we just hang out and get to know each other?" she offered.

"Sounds like a plan to me," I said, immediately enthusiastic. I really wanted to know more about Alice and her family, not only because I found them interesting and I thought Alice and I could be friends but also because it would come in very handy for my story and getting closer to the truth.

"Great, so we both know each other's names already, so let's start with the next obvious question. What do you think of my brother?" Alice said bluntly.

She caught me off guard completely and I sat there, blushing and staring at her for a long time.

"Excuse me?" I managed to choke out after a while.

"What do you think of Edward? You know, you met him yesterday!" she explained like I was some idiot.

"I don't know, I only saw him for a short moment, he seemed nice though," I said shyly.

"Good!" she said while approvingly nodding her head.

"Why do you ask?"

"Just curious, I'm sorry, I can be a bit blunt when I get excited about something," she said calmly.

"That's alright," I said, still a little uncomfortably.

"Why don't you just tell me something about you then?" she offered after a moment of silence.

"Uhm, what do you want to know? I'm not really that interesting," I admitted a little ashamedly.

"I find that very hard to believe! Edward told me you don't technically live in Forks?" she started.

"That's right," I started before explaining my life story to Alice. "How about you?" I asked her after I was done with my story.

"A journalist! That's so cool! Are you working on anything interesting right now?" she asked and I blushed. I didn't want to tell her about the disappearances and everything but I knew I was a terrible liar and somehow I didn't think I was going to get away with it with Alice.

"Err," I started, "well, I'm working on some local crime story right now, that's why I'm back in Forks for the time being," I said, leaving out as many details as I could.

"Sounds interesting, can I know what it's about?" she asked genuinely interested.

"Well, it's all just a bit vague and I don't know anything really, I still have a very long way to go so why don't I tell you when I know more?" I offered, choosing the easy way out.

"Sure," Alice replied easily.

"So how about you? What's your story?" I asked again.

"Where to begin?" she started while her face lit up animatedly. "I was adopted by the Cullens and I've lived with them for as long as I can remember really, we live with my father, Dr. Carlisle Cullen, my mother, Esme Cullen, my brothers Edward and Emmett, Emmett's girlfriend Rosalie and my boyfriend Jasper. We were all adopted by the Cullens and I love it there, Esme is the best mother anyone could ever wish for and I really adore all of them. And I'm very sure you'll love them too when you get to meet all of them, just as they will love you!" she added confidently.

"Sounds like a very nice family!" I admitted.

"It is! We moved to Forks a few weeks back because Carlisle was offered a position at the local hospital and since Esme and I own our own design company it wasn't a problem for us to move, we did most of the jobs from home anyways. Rosalie sometimes helps out with our firm but mostly she just likes working on cars, you should see the look on the faces of the guys when they call a mechanic and they get her! It's priceless! Emmett and Jasper are in the accountancy business, they take care of finances for some firms and they do it very well. Edward is really the only one who isn't all that interested in finding a job, he doesn't really know what he wants to do with his life really, he likes making music and he's very talented but he's not sure he wants a career in that, so right now he just helps out with whoever needs him and other than that he spends his time in the study reading books," Alice stated cheerfully.

"That's quite a diverse bunch," I noted.

"Yes, but it works really well, everyone pretty much goes their own way. But we always make sure to have some quality time together as well."

Alice and I spent the rest of the afternoon chatting and getting to know each other. I found that Alice was very easy to like and I loved talking to her. She was very smart and funny and she spoke with so much enthusiasm and love about everything she was passionate about. She listened to my boring life stories and she actually seemed interested in what I had to say, which was very nice.

Around six Charlie came home and it was time for me to start fixing dinner for us. Charlie was immediately sold when he was introduced to Alice and they spent the entire time I was in the kitchen talking to each other. Charlie invited Alice over for dinner, she thanked him but declined anyways, she said she had some things she needed to take care of at home and she needed to get going.

"I had a lot of fun today Bella," Alice said as I was walking her to the door.

"Me too," I admitted enthusiastically.

"Are you busy tomorrow?" Alice asked suddenly.

"Well, I need to do some research for my story and I really need to go by my friend's house to clear some things up but I don't have anything to do in the afternoon really," I explained.

"Great! Why don't you come over and meet my family then?" she said excitedly.

"That sounds lovely!" I was immediately thrilled, it would be easier than I thought to get to know the Cullens this way.

"Edward will also be there," she added in a conspiratorially. "I know he's eager to see you again." She winked at me.

"Right," I muttered while blushing a deep red. I didn't want to admit it even to myself but I was looking forward to seeing Edward again, for reasons that had nothing to do with the story I was writing.

"It's settled then! I'll pick you up! It's kind of hard to find our house if you've never been there. I'll be here around 2?" she offered.

"That's great! I do have to be back in time to make Charlie his dinner but that should be fine," I said quickly.

"Can't wait!" Alice said happily. "I'll see you tomorrow then!"

She turned around and walked towards her car, which from the looks of it was extremely expensive but I didn't know my cars well enough to make out the company that had made the car.

"She seems like a very nice girl!" Charlie said cheerfully as I walked back to the kitchen to finish up dinner.

"Yeah, she's great!" I replied enthusiastically.

I could tell Charlie was happy that I had made a new friend, ever since I had moved here he had been worried about me not being able to make friends because I loved being on my own just as much as I liked company, sometimes even more. But when I had found Jacob and the guys from La Push he hadn't had anything to worry about anymore, or at least I thought he didn't worry about it anymore, but now it seemed that he was always going to be thinking about it.

Usually Charlie and I didn't talk very much during dinner, neither of us found the silence uncomfortable; it was just the way we were together. So Charlie surprised me when he asked me about Jacob out of nowhere.

"Are you and Jacob alright?" he had asked.

"What do you mean dad?"

"Well, I haven't seen him here in a while and usually when you come home for the weekend you spend most of your time over at La Push, but that seems different this time. So I was just wondering if everything was okay between the two of you," he explained uncomfortably.

"I'm not sure dad," I admitted reluctantly, this wasn't something I could really discuss with my father very well. "I told you he thought it was dangerous for me to come to La Push right? So that's why I haven't been over there much but there's also something different about Jacob and he won't tell me what it is, so we got into a little fight and haven't really talked anymore since," I told Charlie quickly.

"I'm sure the two of you will work it out, you have been best friends for so long," he said confidently. "You should just go easy on Jake, he'll come around eventually," Charlie offered.

I should go easy on Jake? That was rich! He was treating me badly and I should just go easy on him? I felt anger towards Jacob bubbling up inside of me and I was very close to letting it all out on my father for taking his side, but then I realized it wouldn't do much good either way and I worked on calming myself down before speaking again. "Yeah, he has Leah now too so I guess he doesn't really need me anymore," I said bitterly.

"That's not true Bella; you know that, of course he needs you! You're his best friend and that hasn't changed, you should just talk to him about it." Like I had been doing anything else over the past few weeks!

"You're right," I gave in, unwilling to argue with Charlie any further.

The rest of dinner was spent in silence again, I was too strained to hold any conversation with Charlie anymore and I decided the best thing to do was just keep my mouth shut and quickly finish doing the dishes so I could go to my room.

That evening in my room I didn't do research or anything, I just read my beat-up copy of Wuthering Heights, my favorite book, while listening to some soft music in the background. When it was time for me to go to bed all I could think about was meeting the Cullens tomorrow, I wasn't sure what I could expect and for some reason I really hoped they all liked me. Alice had made it sound like so much fun and they sounded like nice people and I couldn't wait to witness it for myself.

A tiny voice in the back of my head said that I shouldn't go over there alone, I still didn't know what their part was in my story and it wouldn't be wise to get close to them before I was certain. However, I was too curious not to go and I fell asleep anticipating the coming afternoon.

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A/N**__: That was it for chapter five already, time flies when you're having fun ;) Hope you enjoyed it and I'll be back tomorrow with a new update :)_

_Xxx_

_Thari_


	6. A Part of the Mystery

_**A/N**__: Hi there, I'm back with a new update :D yay :D I hope you all enjoy it :) Thanks so much for the wonderful reviews, __**Kristen Stewart Is My Life**__, __**Yeye85**__ and __**Shirley**__, you guys are awesome! :) And a special thanks to everyone who has added me or my story to their favorites or alerts :) I appreciate it! :)_

_To __**Kristen Stewart Is My Life**__: You changed your name! :D This one is a lot longer to type ;) But still like it ;) Thanks for the review! :)_

_To __**Yeye85**__: FF has been crap lately but let's cross our fingers and hope it doesn't happen again ;)_

_To __**Shirley**__: OMG you cracked me up with your PM/review ;) I'm excited that you haven't read this chapter yet (I don't think you have either :P) I hope I won't disappoint you ;)_

_On an off note: One of my stories, __**Volunteer**__, has been chosen as a judges pick for the A Christmas To Remember Contest and there's even a banner ;) (link's on my profile :)) I'm so happy that I won that I just wanted to share it with you guys ;) It would mean the world to me if you guys could read it and leave me a review ;) Alright… I'll stop advertising now ;) was just too happy not to share it ;)_

_Wow long A/N, been a while ;) But anyways, t__o everyone: Enjoy the chapter! :) Let me know what you think as always! :)_

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A Part of the Mystery**

The next morning I decided I needed to write down some of the details I had discovered for my story so far, otherwise my head would just continue to be a mess. So I waited for my laptop to start up and opened a new document. I titled the document "Notes on Forks" and began summing up everything I knew.

_Jacob is acting weird_

_Disappearances since 6 or 7 weeks ago_

_Around area of Forks_

_Deaths several weeks after going missing, drained of blood completely (like vampires)_

_Edward Cullen and his family moved here 6 or 7 weeks ago_

_Connections? _

That was all I had so far. I closed the document again and got ready to go to La Push. It was 10 o'clock in the morning and I was pretty sure Jacob wouldn't be awake right now but if I wanted to find out some things it might even be better if he wasn't. I was going to talk to some of his friends down at La Push first; hopefully they could give me a better insight. Then maybe I was going to check out the beginning of the woods to see if I could find any clues. Only then would I go see Jacob and try one more time to find out what exactly was going on with him.

I raced down to La Push and I was lucky enough to find Seth, one of Jacob's friends and Leah's little brother, wandering on the beach.

"Seth!" I exclaimed the moment I was within hearing distance. I had always liked Seth, he was like the younger version of Jacob and he was always very easygoing.

Seth turned his head in my direction and the moment he noticed me he ran towards me with so much speed I was stunned for a moment. I had not expected Seth to be this quick and he wasn't even out of breath when he reached me. Seth wasn't as small as he used to be anymore either and for some reason he looked a lot like Jacob; he was very buff and tall. It surprised me and I was wondering for a moment if something might be in the food down at the reservation; steroids maybe.

"Hi Bells! Long time no see!" he exclaimed happily before pulling me in for a hug.

"Easy Seth!" I said in between giggles.

"Sorry," he muttered as he put me back on my own two feet.

"It's alright," I smiled at Seth. "You've gotten _big_, Seth!" I said surprised.

"I know," he responded simply while shrugging.

"You do know steroids are bad for you right?" I said carefully but with a smile on my face.

"I'm not on steroids, Bella!" Seth responded while rolling his eyes at me.

"Right," I muttered, "How is it that everyone around here seems to be getting so big all of a sudden then?" I decided not to beat around the bush, I came here for answers and the best person to get them from was right here with me, I couldn't pass up this opportunity.

"Ever heard of working out?" Seth said jokingly.

"You don't get _tall_ from working out!" I responded a little annoyed that that seemed to be the standard response to my question.

"That's called growing Bells!" Seth responded while shrugging. His eyes were shifting rapidly and he was avoiding my stare, indicating that he was in on the secret and I clearly was not supposed to know.

"I wish you people wouldn't lie to me!" I exclaimed angrily before I realized it myself.

"What are you talking about Bella?" Seth said, serious for a change.

"Clearly there is something going on here and I thought we were supposed to be friends! But both you and Jake, and no doubt the rest of the guys here, obviously don't want me to know! You don't keep secrets from friends!" The words came out in a rush and tears started filling up my eyes. "Even Leah knows!" I didn't want to add the last part, especially since Leah was Seth's sister and if something was going on with Seth of course she would have the right to know but I was angry at everyone at the moment.

"Bella," Seth said calmly.

"It's not fair! And I know there are some things going on in the woods here as well, bad things Seth!"

"Bella, you really shouldn't get involved in this!" Seth warned, more serious than I had ever seen him before.

"But I want to help!" I said stubbornly.

"You can't help Bella, this doesn't concern you!"

"Please," I begged softly, knowing it wasn't of any use.

"Bella, it's not like we don't want to tell you but it's not safe and we just can't. Jacob was right when he said that it would be safer for you to stay away from here!" Seth's words cut me like a knife and the tears rolled down my face.

"What's going on here?" Sam's voice came from behind me.

I slowly turned around to look at Sam and I had never realized how much Jacob actually looked like Sam, or maybe it was just the new Jacob that looked like Sam a lot, I couldn't say.

"Bella? Are you alright?" Sam asked concerned.

"I'm fine," I said courtly.

"What's wrong?" he pressed.

"I hate being lied to," I replied bitterly while shooting a glare at Seth.

"Why don't we go to Jacob's house to talk about it?" Sam suggested.

"So you can feed me more lies?" I asked skeptically.

"I won't lie to you Bella," Sam said sincerely.

"Fine," I muttered and I reluctantly followed the two guys to Jacob's house.

It wasn't much later that we were all sitting in the tiny living room of Billy's house. Jacob and Billy had joined us and none of us said anything.

"So what's going on here?" I asked after a while.

"You're going to have to be more specific than that Bella," Sam said calmly.

"Alright, let's start with the deaths in the woods, what's going on with that?" I said, mentally composing a list of questions I wanted answers to.

"We're working on it," Sam replied with a hint of authority in his voice. It was strange how close his posture was to Billy's, like he was one of the leaders here as well.

I still wasn't really getting anywhere with answers like that but I guess this was all I was going to get for now. I continued working through my list.

"Do you know who's doing this?" I asked.

"We have some ideas but we can't act until we're sure." Another cryptic answer that wasn't going to get me anywhere.

"Right, could it be people from the reservation?" I asked, even though I knew if it would be the guys from La Push, Sam probably wouldn't tell me anyways.

"No!" Sam replied certainly.

"How do you know?" I pressed.

"I know everyone who lives on this reservation and none of them would be capable of doing something like this, plus that some of these disappearances happened when we were having a meeting with the entire reservation and everyone was present there."

"Alright, when did the disappearances start?" I asked mentally taking notes of every answer Sam gave me, ready to add them to my list on my laptop as soon as I was back at Charlie's house.

"7 weeks ago," Sam said immediately.

"How many disappearances have there been since then?"

"We're not entirely sure yet, but there seems to be a new one every week."

"Right, okay," I said, nodding my head.

"Bella, we all know there is more you want to know, not related to the disappearances, just get to it!" Jacob spoke for the first time.

"Fine, what's going on with you then?" I asked Jacob directly. "And don't tell me that you guys are working out and that growing is just a natural part of life! Nobody grows that quickly, nor do they get that buff in such a short time! Not without drugs at least," I added suspiciously.

Jacob and Sam exchanged looks and it seemed like Sam was nodding his head at Jacob infinitesimally.

"Alright, do you remember the myths I used to tell you when we were younger? About the tribe?" Jacob started.

I just nodded my head, waiting for him to continue.

"What do you remember about them?"

It had been a long time since I had heard the stories so I didn't quite remember them anymore.

"I don't know Jake, it's been so long," I admitted softly.

"I know, do you remember what they say about where our tribe comes from? Of whom we are descended?" Jacob hinted.

"Oh!" I exclaimed, remembering the story he was hinting at. "You're supposed to be descended from wolves or something right?"

"Yes, that's right, that's the story I was talking about. Well it turns out that those stories aren't just myths," Jacob said cautiously, eyeing my reaction carefully.

"What are you saying?"

"Bella," Sam said suddenly, "are you sure you want to know this? It's not safe!" he warned sternly.

"I want my friends back!" I said certainly.

"Alright, when Jacob told you the myths he didn't know the truth behind them yet. Did he tell you what it would mean to be descended from wolves?" Sam asked.

"I don't remember, I don't think he did," I said unsurely.

"He didn't know yet. In the case of our tribe, being descended from wolves means that there is something special in our genes. This develops around a certain age or in certain circumstances and when this gene develops a change happens within us," Sam explained.

"What kind of change?" I asked.

"Well, firstly the things that you've seen, we get stronger and bigger rapidly, but also our body temperature rises incredibly. But those are not the most abnormal changes, all these symptoms lead to one big change," Sam told me calmly.

"What kind of big change?" I pressed.

"Whenever we get upset, or whenever we need to, we can transform ourselves into wolves," Sam said, not once changing his expression.

I looked around the room incredulously.

"Like werewolves?" I exclaimed skeptically.

"Yes something like that," Sam replied, still serious.

I stood up from my chair and started walking out of the room. "You said you wouldn't lie to me!" I said angrily.

"Bella," Jacob said while running after me.

"If our friendship means that little to you then that's fine!" I retorted.

"Bella, it's all true! That's why I couldn't be friends with you anymore, it's dangerous!"

"Yeah right Jacob! You know what, never mind alright?" I yelled at him.

"Bella!" Jacob said again, this time roughly grabbing my arm and turning me around so I was facing him.

"What?" I said bitterly.

Jacob took a few steps backwards before his entire body started shaking. All the time he kept staring at me, looking me straight in my eyes with a pleading look. I just stared back at him, still angry.

Before I could understand what was going on Jacob started shaking even worse, I blinked and when my eyes opened again Jacob was gone and there was a giant wolf standing right in front of me. I let out a squeal in surprise and took a few instinctual steps back.

As quickly as the wolf had appeared, it disappeared again and Jacob was standing in the same spot the gigantic wolf had been just a few moments ago. I stared at Jacob with wide eyes. I noticed his clothes lay ripped on the floor and that Jacob was naked. I quickly turned around in shame.

"I told you it was true," Jacob said softly. I heard him move away from me but just as quickly he came back again.

"You can turn around now, it's safe," Jacob said jokingly.

I slowly turned around to face him again; he was wearing sweatpants but no shirt. He had really filled out!

"How…?" I started but I didn't know what I wanted to ask.

"Those myths are true Bella; this is why I couldn't be friends with you anymore! I wanted to tell you but I couldn't. I'm so sorry! If you don't want to be friends with me anymore and if you never want to see me again you can just tell me and I'll leave you alone I promise!" Jacob rushed out the words.

"Jake, just give me a moment," I said, still in shock.

"Alright," Jacob said unsurely.

I let my mind work through everything slowly, without saying anything.

"Are you behind those attacks?" I asked after a moment, I could imagine a giant wolf like that would be able to drain a human of its blood completely.

"No! Bella, like Sam told you before, we're trying to stop whoever is doing this! We don't hurt humans, we protect them!" Jacob exclaimed, I could see the pain in his eyes and I could tell that he was telling the truth.

"Alright," I said calmly.

"Are you feeling okay?" Jacob asked tentatively.

"I'm getting there," I answered truthfully.

"It would be so great if you could be alright with all of this, because that would mean truly no more secrets between us and we can just be friends again," Jacob said enthusiastically.

I realized that he was now more the Jacob I had known and loved so much the past couple of years and when I looked into his eyes I knew we were going to be alright. He was still the same Jake, only stronger and bigger, I could handle this, couldn't I?

"So, can you tell me more about what you are?" I asked, not knowing if I was being rude or not.

Luckily Jacob just smiled at me broadly.

"Let's go for a walk!" he said enthusiastically.

"Is everything alright here?" Seth came from Billy's house with Sam right behind him.

"It's fine," I assured them and just like Jacob Seth smiled broadly at me.

I looked over to Sam and he nodded his head to me, I gave him a timid smile in return.

"Why don't we go over to our place? It might be helpful for you if you talk to Emily and it would be nice for Emily to have some female friends other than just Leah," Sam suggested.

I nodded my head enthusiastically, I had never really met Emily, I had hung out with the guys from La Push a lot and I had heard stories about Emily but I had never once met her.

When we arrived at Sam's and I got to meet Emily for the first time I understood why we hadn't met before, half her face was covered in scars and they resembled claw marks. I looked over at Jacob questioningly and he shrugged, mouthing "later" to me, indicating that I would get the finer details of that particular story later.

Emily was an amazing woman, she was kind and sweet and we hit it off the moment we met. I was grateful that I had someone to talk to who could relate to what I was going through right now.

The rest of the morning I spent over at Sam's place, getting to know Emily and learning as much as I could about the 'pack' as they called themselves. It was very interesting to see how closely connected they were and I was amazed when Jacob told me that they could hear all of each other's thoughts the moment they were in their wolf form.

Around noon it was time for me to make my way back to the house; I needed some time to get ready before Alice was coming over to pick me up.

"I'll see you again soon?" Jacob asked when we were at my truck.

"Sure Jake!" I replied enthusiastically.

"I'm so happy you know now Bella! It has been killing me to keep this a secret from you!" Jake said happily.

"I'm glad I know too," I admitted, surprised at how true that statement was; I wasn't freaked out by the fact that my best friend was a werewolf as much anymore, not nearly as much as I should have at least. "Does Leah know?" I suddenly asked, realizing that keeping something this big from your girlfriend who lives a couple of houses down the road from you would even be harder than keeping it from your best friend who lives in a completely different city.

"Yeah," Jake shrugged.

"And she's okay with it?" I asked incredulously.

"You're okay with it as well remember?" Jake retorted teasingly. "But yeah, she's okay with it, it would be a bit hypocritical for her not to be," he added with a smile.

"Oh!" I exclaimed. "She's one too?" I had not seen that one coming.

"Yeah, that's why we go together so well, it was sort of a love at first bark kind of thing," Jacob joked.

Not long after that we said our goodbyes and I made my way over to Charlie's house to get ready for another difficult part of this day.

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A/N**__: I'm definitely not for the whole Jacob/Bella love couple thing but I do want her to have her best friend ;) I always think Jacob is rather sweet when he isn't looking at her like a love sick puppy :P So that's why I wanted them to work it out ;) Besides, I love the wolves :D (Not just cause I think they're hot in the movies ;):P) Hope you liked the chapter :D I'd love to hear your thoughts :) And I'll be back tomorrow with a new chapter :D Including the Cullens yay! :D _

_Xxx_

_Thari_


	7. Meeting the Cullens

_**A/N**__: Hello there, thank you for the wonderful reviews, __**Kristen Stewart Is My Life**__, __**Shirley**__ and __**Yeye85**__ :) _

_To __**Shirley**__: I knew the moment I told you about it it was a bad decision! But that's alright :P I'm glad I'm FINALLY posting chapters that you haven't read before ;) Hope your day at work wasn't too sucky :( I know how you feel ;)_

_To __**Yeye85**__: I'm glad ff got their act together too :) Wouldn't want to be in their shoes when you would have written that letter ;) Thanks for reviewing! :) Hope you like the meeting with the Cullens :)_

_Hope you all enjoy this chapter, lots of Cullens involved ;) Let me know what you think! :)_

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Meeting the Cullens**

At exactly two o'clock the doorbell rang and I wasn't nearly ready. I had no idea what I was supposed to wear and was currently still in jeans and a sweater, this was how well I had planned it all. I slowly walked downstairs towards the door and opened it. Alice was standing outside with a broad smile on her face. She was carrying some sort of package and she was nearly bouncing up and down in excitement.

"Hi Bella! I'm so happy you agreed to meet my family! They're all eager to meet you too!" she said enthusiastically the moment she saw me.

"Hi," I replied tentatively.

"I figured you might have some problems figuring out what to wear so I brought you something, I hope you like it!" Alice gushed as she walked past me into the hallway.

"What?" I asked baffled.

Alice danced towards the living room and made herself comfortable on the couch before she put the bag on her lap and started taking out the content of it.

She held up a blue blouse triumphantly. "I'm sure you have something nice to match this don't you?" she said cheerfully.

"How did you know?" I asked still taken aback.

"It's my gift," she said smugly while winking at me, I laughed. "No, I figured you might be nervous and I've seen what you were wearing the last times and I thought it might help you if I made the decision for you," she said shamelessly.

"Wow, that's very nice of you," I said softly, not sure if I was supposed to be offended by her last comment but at the moment I was just grateful. I really liked Alice, she was a bit weird but that made her even more fun to be around, it wasn't hard to feel comfortable around her.

I went upstairs to change and I decided my denim skirt would go nicely with this blouse, I wore one of the few pairs of heels I owned with it and put my hair in a braid to finish it all off. "That's as good as it's going to get," I muttered to myself before I made my way downstairs again to be submitted to Alice's judgment.

"Very nice," she complimented me the moment I came into the living room.

"Thanks," I said blushing heavily.

I thought I heard Alice say "I'm sure he'll love that color on you," but it was very soft so I couldn't be certain.

"What if they don't like me?" I asked uncertainly the moment we left the house. I didn't even know why I cared; I was going there to get more insight into these strangers and to see if they had anything to do with the story. Or at least that's what I told myself.

"They'll love you Bella! Don't worry about it!" Alice replied enthusiastically. "Now, let's go!" she urged.

I didn't understand why but I let out a sigh in relief at Alice's words. Alice smiled at my response before leading me to her car.

"Wow! You drive _that_?" I asked a little impressed as well as appalled by the expensive looking black Mercedes that was waiting for us on my dad's small driveway. I had never been in a car that looked more expensive than my dad's house and I was scared to death to break it.

"It's my father's car, I borrowed it," Alice said while shrugging.

"Oh," I said softly.

I didn't know much about cars, actually I didn't know anything, but I knew that this couldn't have been a cheap car and it looked like it was brand-new; there was no scratch on it whatsoever. I felt ridiculous for even stepping into the car, it was nothing like my beloved truck, this car was royalty and my truck was just a farmer. I sat down in the passenger seat nervously.

"Relax Bella, I told you, they'll all love you!" Alice said, misjudging my nervousness.

"Right," I just muttered as I shifted my weight slowly and carefully.

Alice drove like a maniac, she drove too fast and too soon we were at the exit to her house. The white house was hidden quite well and I was sure that no matter how many times I would come here, I would never be able find it on my own. Not that I would be coming here often, hopefully I would get all the information I needed in one or maybe two visits.

Alice opened the door to a house that was even more outrageous than the car. It was huge and white but for some reason very comforting.

"We're here!" Alice yelled when we entered the house.

We stepped into the living room and there were 5 people waiting there. I first noticed a lovely looking woman, she wasn't very old but she looked like the mother of the family.

"Bella, this is Esme, our mother," Alice announced.

On the way over, Alice had explained the family dynamics to me. Her mother had been unable to have children of her own so she and her husband had adopted Alice and her two brothers. Later they adopted two other children into the family, a brother and sister, Alice had apparently fallen in love with the brother and her brother had fallen in love with the girl. It sounded like something out of a romance novel.

"It's so nice to meet you Bella," the woman named Esme said sweetly.

"It's nice to meet you too," I replied while returning her smile. She seemed like a very warm and caring person to me and I felt sad for her that she hadn't been able to have any children of her own.

"This is my husband Carlisle," Esme introduced the man who was standing on her right.

The man apparently named Carlisle was very handsome and there was something about him that made me feel very safe around him.

"Hi Bella, it's a pleasure to meet you," Carlisle said while extending his hand towards me.

I shook his hand and smiled tentatively. "Thank you for having me here," I said politely.

After that Alice introduced me to her siblings. Her sister was a very attractive, blonde haired girl named Rosalie and her appearance intimidated me more than a bit. Standing next to Rosalie was Alice's big brother, his name was Emmett and he reminded me of a big bear, but a sweet one. The moment Emmett was introduced he had grinned at me, looking a little like a child, and he had greeted me enthusiastically. Lastly Alice introduced me to Jasper, the love of her life as she had put it; Jasper was a blonde haired, handsome guy, he seemed a bit uncomfortable around me, he kept his distance and hardly looked at me. "Jasper is just a bit shy," Alice explained when she saw I had noticed his response.

I glanced around the room and I felt a surge of disappointment as I noticed that Edward wasn't there.

"He's upstairs," Alice said. "Why don't you go ask if he'll come downstairs?" she suggested.

Alice explained where his room was and I started walking up the stairs slowly, uncertain. What if I was interrupting something important? He would be mad at me. I didn't want that. But on the other hand I wanted to see him, there was no point in denying that anymore; the disappointment I had felt the moment I noticed he wasn't there had been great enough to show me that I was eager to see him again.

So I slowly made my way to his room but before I could knock on his door, the door flung open and Edward stepped outside. It startled me and I let out a high squeal.

"Sorry," Edward said with a crooked smile that made him look even more handsome than he had done when I had first met him.

"That's alright," I stumbled the moment I had regained my sanity.

"I was listening to some music so I didn't hear you come in, I was just coming down to check if you were already here," Edward said kindly.

"Oh," was my brilliant response.

"It's good to see you again." His velvety voice made my heart jump and my head started to spin. What was going on with me?

"It's good to see you too," I replied shyly.

"Why don't we join the others again?" he suggested with a smile.

"Alright," I said tentatively.

He led the way back downstairs and we joined his family in the living room.

"Ah you found him," Emmett said jokingly the moment he noticed us. "It's strange that he didn't come running downstairs the moment you walked in; he has been talking of nothing else ever since he met you the other day," he added while grinning broadly. I blushed heavily and quickly dropped my gaze to the floor, unable to find a proper response.

"Great, thanks Emmett," Edward said angrily. "Don't listen to him, we think somebody must have dropped him on his head repeatedly when he was a child," Edward added to me.

I let out a nervous giggle. Then I noticed something flying through the air with high speed and it hit Edward straight in the face. I looked over to Edward in shock and I noticed that it had been one of the pillows that had been on the couch.

"What the…" Edward started.

"Boys!" Esme interrupted sternly. "Behave! We have company!" she warned them.

"Sorry mom," they both said simultaneously.

"So Bella, tell us something about yourself," Esme said while she motioned for me to take a seat on the couch.

"What do you want to know?" I asked self-consciously, I didn't like all the attention to be on me but it seemed like this was just going to be one of those occasions where I had no choice.

"Everything," Edward said softly and I looked over to him in surprise.

"Why don't we start with something a little more simple," Alice suggested with a playful smile.

"We've never seen you around Forks before, do you come here often?" Esme asked kindly.

"Not anymore, I used to live here with my dad throughout high school and university but I recently moved to Seattle for my job," I replied automatically.

"Didn't you want to live with your mother?" Esme asked surprised. "I'm sorry, I don't mean to pry," she added quickly.

"That's alright," I assured her. "I had been living with my mother ever since my parents got divorced but my mother remarried," I said.

"And you didn't like the husband?" Jasper asked interested.

"No that's not it! Phil is great! But he's a minor league baseball player and he travels a lot, it was making my mother unhappy to be away from him so long every time because she had to stay home with me. I decided to go live with Charlie so my mother could be with Phil," I explained. I didn't understand why they were all so interested in my boring life but luckily I felt comfortable here and I didn't have any trouble talking to them.

"You went to university?" Emmett asked.

"You only just realized that?" Jasper asked jokingly.

"No!" Emmett replied while rolling his eyes at his brother. "I was going to ask what she had studied! Duh!" Emmett stated quickly, a little offended.

I laughed softly. "I studied journalism, I did my internship at the Seattle Times and that's where I'm working now," I told Emmett softly.

"Wow, that's pretty cool, what kind of journalism?" he asked.

I shifted my weight nervously as I tried to come up with the best way to answer this question. "I want to be an investigative reporter but I'm not there yet, I only just started and I have to work my way up the latter by doing more boring stories first." I settled on telling him the truth for most of it, I didn't want to share the information about the current story though.

"You said you already got your first investigative job didn't you?" Alice asked surprised.

I had completely forgotten that I had told her that I was in town to work on a local crime story.

"Right, that's just a one-time thing though," I said quickly blushing heavily, I had never been a good liar, I figured I'd have to get better at it if I wanted to keep working in this particular profession.

"You're working on a story now? That's so cool!" Emmett said enthusiastically. "What's it about?" he asked, genuinely interested.

"It's all a little vague right now, it's just a local crime story," I replied. I wasn't here to talk about my story, I was only here to work on my story.

"Isn't that dangerous though?" Edward asked seeming genuinely concerned.

"Not really," I shrugged, hoping he'd buy it. "My dad's a cop, I'm just hoping I've inherited some of those genes," I added jokingly.

Edward laughed along with the rest of his family but for some reason he didn't seem convinced, I couldn't quite figure out why he would bother. Maybe he didn't care and maybe I was just making it all up, I didn't know.

"Well I think it's really great that you're a journalist, I'm sure you're a very good one!" Carlisle spoke up for the first time.

"Not yet," I replied shyly.

"I'm sure that's just modesty, they wouldn't let you have a local crime story if you weren't ready for it and you've only just started so you have to be pretty good already if you ask me," Carlisle said confidently.

"Thank you, but I'm guessing it's just more luck than anything else, that's how I got my first big story anyways and I guess it's just luck that I happen to have lived in Forks and that I'm the daughter of the chief of police so that I would be the best reporter for the job, even if my skills aren't as developed as most of my colleagues," I replied while shrugging.

"I'm sure it's more than luck," Esme chimed in and I couldn't say anything, I just smiled at them thankfully for being so kind to me.

I spent the rest of the afternoon just chatting and getting to know the Cullens, I found that they were very easy going and, aside from the obvious beauty they all possessed, there was really nothing scary about them. So I had a hard time believing that they had something to do with the terrible disappearances and the deaths that have been going on here but it seemed like just too much of a coincidence that they moved here around the same time that all the killing started.

"I should really go back home and start making dinner for Charlie, the things he has been eating ever since I moved out, it's a miracle he's not in worse shape than he is," I said jokingly.

"It's a good thing he has you to take care of him now again then," Esme said smilingly.

"I guess so, but I can't stick around forever, he really needs to start taking better care of himself," I said ruefully.

"He's a big boy, I'm sure he'll be fine," Alice said lightly.

"I hope you're right," I said a little doubtfully.

"You haven't known me very long but I'm always right," she said confidently.

"Shorty's right," Emmett said. "It's quite annoying really, she drives me crazy with it!"

"Bella, I'm sorry but I don't think I can drive you home though, I promised Jasper I'd help him out with something," Alice said suddenly.

"Really?" Jasper asked incredulously.

"Yes!" Alice said while throwing an elbow into his ribs when she thought I wasn't looking. I couldn't help but laugh.

"Oh!" he exclaimed. "Right," he added a little pathetically.

"But I'm sure Edward wouldn't mind driving you home, would you Edward?" she asked sweetly.

"You don't have to really, I'm sure it's not that far walking," I said tentatively.

"You're not walking!" Edward stated firmly. "I'll take you home, let's go," he said a little more softly while shooting a meaningful look in Alice's direction, she just smiled back at him smugly.

Once I'd said goodbye to all the other members of the Cullen family, Edward guided me towards his car and to my surprise he walked with me to the passenger side. I looked at him incredulously when he opened the door for me.

"What?" he asked, a little confused by my staring.

"Nothing," I muttered weakly while dropping my eyes to the floor.

"Please tell me what you were thinking," he said more sweetly now.

I looked up to meet his gaze again and I was left completely dazed, not only was his voice extremely compelling but his golden eyes were staring straight into my soul and it felt like I had no other choice but to tell him what was on my mind.

"I just didn't think there were still guys alive that actually opened doors for someone," I said shyly while blushing heavily.

"That wasn't so hard now was it?" he asked jokingly and I just shook my head, still unable to break my gaze from his. "But I guess you're right, it's a little outdated but it's the way I was raised," he added while smiling a lovely smile at me.

I smiled back timidly before climbing into the car clumsily.

It wasn't long before Edward was in his seat and he revved the engine. He drove even quicker than Alice had done this afternoon and I was holding on to my seat feeling like I would die the moment I would let go.

"Do you mind?" I asked, a little frustrated by the speed.

"What's wrong?" Edward asked shocked.

"You're driving like a maniac!" I exclaimed. "You do know my father is a cop right?"

"I never get caught," he said with a smile in his voice.

"That's not what I'm worried about!" I exclaimed, still too panicked to lower my voice.

"Nothing's going to happen," Edward assured me.

I wasn't convinced. "Please?" I asked.

"Alright," Edward gave in and he slowed down to just a little above the speedlimit.

"Thank you," I said softly.

"Anytime," he replied. He was smiling at me but I could see the chagrin in his eyes, he clearly didn't like driving normally.

"Your family is really nice," I said after a moment of silence.

"They seemed to really like you too, we don't have visitors over that often so it was a nice change for all of us," he said kindly, the chagrin had disappeared from his face as well as his voice and I felt a wave of relief.

"Alice told me you were all adopted by Carlisle and Esme," I said, eager to learn more about Edward.

"Yes, my parents died when I was young and Carlisle and Esme took us in," Edward said quietly.

"I'm sorry," I said sadly, Alice hadn't told me why they had been adopted.

"Thank you, but it happened so long ago, I still think about them every now and then but Carlisle and Esme have been my parents for so long and I love them."

"It's very nice of them to take in so many children, especially as young as they are," I said, my voice full of admiration.

Edward smiled at me and it sent my heart into overdrive, it didn't make any sense to my why he had this effect on me but I wasn't going to get worked up over it. _I'm only here for the story._ I reminded myself firmly. "They're wonderful people," Edward said, his voice full of love for his parents.

We drove onto Charlie's driveway and it was almost time for us to say goodbye, I didn't know when I was going to see any of the Cullens again and that thought made me a little sad.

"Alice really likes you, I've never seen her act this way around anyone that wasn't our family," Edward said out of the blue.

"I like her too, she's really nice," I said smilingly.

"She can be a little blunt every now and then though but she means well," he said almost apologetically.

"I've noticed," I replied jokingly. "But that's alright, I like her energy," I said sincerely.

Edward stopped the car in front of the house and he turned off the engine. "Good," he said thoughtfully.

Edward was staring at me again, he didn't say anything and it seemed like he was concentrating very hard on something but I couldn't understand what that would be.

"What's wrong?" I asked after a little while.

"Nothing," Edward said while smiling absentmindedly at me. "I'm sorry."

"That's alright," I said while blushing uncomfortably. "I should get going," I continued reluctantly.

"I guess so, hold on one second," Edward said while he opened his door and got out of the car.

I did as he asked and remained in my seat staring incredulously at the beautiful boy walking around the car to my door.

He opened my door and held out his hand to help me out of the car. I took his hand while blushing heavily, it felt cold and hard but it wasn't unpleasant, but I was surprised at the smoothness of his skin and stared at Edward for a moment before regaining my sanity and climbing out of the car.

"You know I'm perfectly capable of opening my own door," I said jokingly.

"I told you, it's the way I was raised, so if you don't mind, I'd like to keep holding the door open for you," he said with a crooked smile that sent my heart fluttering.

"I don't mind," I stammered.

"Good," he said contently.

Edward walked me to the door in silence.

"Well, I had a great time," I said sincerely.

"Me too," he replied.

"I'll see you around?" I asked uncertain.

"I'm sure we'll meet again," he replied with a smile.

The anticipation of our next meeting was already building up in my body and I still couldn't quite understand why, I had never been this excited about meeting a source for any kind of story so why would this be different. I liked the Cullens but this didn't make sense to me whatsoever.

"Bye Edward," I said while opening the door.

"Goodnight Bella," Edward replied before turning around and walking towards his car.

He looked back once more and waved at me, I waved back shyly and before I knew it he was gone.

_**

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A/N**__: That's it for today :) Hope you enjoyed it :) I'll be back tomorrow with more :) _

_Xxx_

_Thari_


	8. Surprising Connection

_**A/N**__: Hi guys, I'm back with a new update, sorry it's a bit late… But if you want someone to blame… Blame my job for only giving me one break instead of the usual two so I didn't have any time to edit my story before now :( As always thanks to my wonderful reviewers __**Kristin Stewart Is My Life**__, __**Yeye85 **__and __**Shirley**__, you guys rock! :)_

_To __**Yeye85**__: I'm glad you were so excited about my chapter ;) Thanks for the review! :)_

_To __**Shirley**__: I'm sure Edward was impressed by your angry glare ;) I'm glad my chapter cheered you up :) That's what I'm all about ;)_

_I hope you enjoy today's fluffiness ;) Let me know what you think! :)_

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Surprising Connection**

The next morning I woke up in a daze. I had been dreaming about Edward all night and even though they weren't bad dreams, the opposite actually, I was still very restless. I had only seen the guy twice in my entire life and I was already dreaming about us getting married and having kids and the whole ordeal. In my dreams I seemed to be always just as pretty as the rest of the Cullens and somehow my eyes were always golden as well. It felt like I was losing myself more every time I thought about Edward. I wasn't that kind of girl was I?

_Snap out of it! It was just a dream!_ I told myself firmly. _He's just a lead for your story!_

"Right," I muttered. Great, now I was talking to myself out loud. This day just keeps getting better and better and it has only just started.

I reluctantly pulled myself out of bed and started up my laptop. I was going to have to get a move on that story of mine if I wanted to get a good piece finished before Adam fires me. And it had to be good… This was my first solo piece and there has to be something there or I'll never get a chance like this again.

After I had taken a shower my laptop was finally ready and I opened the document I had made for this story. I had some new additions that were kind of important.

_Jacob is acting weird_

_Disappearances since 6 or 7 weeks ago_

_Around area of Forks_

_Deaths several weeks after going missing, drained of blood completely (like vampires)_

_Edward Cullen and his family moved here 6 or 7 weeks ago_

_Connections?_

_Jacob is a werewolf_

_Cullens live in a secluded house, they don't mingle much with the rest of the town_

_There is something strange with the Cullens_

_The Cullens are nice _

I don't know why I added the last line, mostly because I still couldn't believe they were part of this all, since they were indeed so nice.

The doorbell rang and it startled me. I knew Charlie was out today, he had work to do, and I wasn't expecting any visitors. I made my way down the stairs to open the door and I was surprised to find Edward standing there.

"Hi," he said with a beautiful crooked smile.

"Hi," I replied shyly. My hands got clammy and my mouth turned dry and I didn't really know what to do now. I had never had a reaction like this to anyone and quite frankly it scared me in more than one way. I didn't know this beautiful guy; we had only just met. And worst of all, I still didn't know his part in my article.

"I'm sorry to show up unannounced like this, I know I shouldn't," he apologized.

"That's alright," I responded a little too quickly. I blushed heavily and Edward chuckled. "Would you like to come in?" I asked tentatively.

"I would love to," he answered with a bright smile.

"Alright, give me one second," I said before dashing into the living room to make sure it was decent.

After concluding that it would have to do I went back to the door and invited Edward in shyly.

"You have a lovely home," he commented kindly.

"It's nothing compared to yours," I said softly.

"You're wrong, it's cozy and nice, I like it," he stated.

"Thank you," I just replied while blushing. "You can take a seat if you want," I offered.

"Thank you," he said while sitting down in my dad's chair.

I sat down on the couch in front of him and we just stared at each other for a moment.

"Alice told me where you lived," Edward started a little uncomfortably.

"Oh?" I replied brilliantly.

"She thought I should know where you lived," he continued.

"Why?" I asked dumbly.

"I'm not sure, but I'm guessing she wants us to get along or something." He shrugged.

"Right." I didn't know what else to say. This wasn't as easy as talking to Alice, that was for sure.

"I'm really happy that the two of you get along so well. It's hard for us to make friends and I know that Alice has been dying to find another female friend outside of the family," he said seriously.

"I really like Alice! She's really nice!" I said with a shy smile. "But I can't imagine why it would be hard for any of you to make friends, you are all so nice," I added softly.

"Well, it's a bit hard to explain actually. But what it comes down to is people don't generally like to get close to us, they are intimidated or something, I don't really know. And the fact that we have moved around a lot lately makes it only that much more difficult to actually connect with people or get attached to them because in two years time we usually have to move again," he explained thoughtfully. "Besides, people usually think we're strange. Carlisle and Esme are very young to have such old children and the fact that 4 out of the 5 children are dating each other doesn't really help either," he said while rolling his eyes comically. I couldn't help but laugh.

"Alright, I see your point. You guys are strange," I joked. The moment I realized what I had just said I held my breath, he could easily take that as an insult. After all, I didn't really know him that well… I glanced at him and luckily he was smiling broadly back at me. I let out a sigh in relief.

It turned out that it wasn't as hard to talk to Edward as I had initially thought. Sure there were many moments where I wanted to kill myself after blurting out some embarrassing detail a little too quickly and perhaps letting him know too easily that I more than just liked him. He was extremely kind and more than a little handsome. Oh, what was I saying? He is drop-dead gorgeous!

I let out a nervous giggle in realization that I sounded just like the girls in high school who used to gossip about 'hunks' and who was dating whom. Like the girls in movies who had slumber parties and played truth or dare to figure out who had the hots for whom etc.

"What's funny?" Edward raised one perfect eyebrow at me curiously.

"Nothing," I said quickly while blushing a deep red.

"I know I haven't known you for all that long, or rather I don't really know you at all, but something tells me that when you blush like that, something interesting is on your mind," he commented seriously.

I blushed even deeper as I raked through my brain to figure out something to say that wouldn't make me look even more stupid than I already did.

"Really, it wasn't that interesting," I tried; knowing he probably wouldn't let it go that easily.

"Please?" he begged while his eyes smoldered me.

I didn't want to deny him anything.

"You'll think I'm crazy and stupid and you'll never want to talk to me again," I warned him.

"That only makes me more curious! But I'm sure nothing you'll say will make me never want to talk to you again. You fascinate me," he said while staring at me bluntly.

"Right…" I said, not knowing what else to say. What did that mean, I fascinate him?

"So?" he pressed.

"Fine," I grumbled, which only made Edward smile even more and his smile sent my heart into overdrive. "I was laughing because I felt like one of those girls from a chick flick who only thinks about guys," I rushed out, hoping he hadn't heard and wouldn't question me any further.

No such luck…

"I don't understand. What do you mean?" he asked, intrigued.

Shoot! "I was just thinking that you're beautiful," I muttered hopefully inaudibly while blushing all the colors red that I could think of.

"This isn't right," Edward seemed to mutter. "I shouldn't have come here, I'm sorry Bella," he said as he got up from my dad's chair.

"What?" I was confused. What had just happened? He was offended! I was such an idiot! Even though I'm not a good liar I should have come up with something better than the truth! I had only seen the guy twice… And I was already telling him I thought he was beautiful… What kind of sane person does that? The answer to that is clear… No _SANE_ person would…

"I'm sorry Bella," Edward said again.

"No wait! I'm sorry I shouldn't have said that! It doesn't mean anything… Please don't go." I sounded like a pathetic teenager again. I was begging this stranger not to go… What must he think of me? I wouldn't be surprised if his family would move again tomorrow because he thought I'm a nutcase and I'm a danger to his family.

"I have to go," he said, sounding sad.

"Why? Can't we just forget I said that? It was just a silly thought! You said you'd still want to talk to me afterwards," I added weakly. "I told you that you would be mad at me!" I was accusing him now.

I didn't understand what this stranger was doing to me. This beautiful boy who had been on my mind from the moment I met him. I couldn't lie to myself anymore; he wasn't just a source for my story. I liked him. I liked him more than I had ever thought possible, especially given the short time we'd known each other. But it was the truth. I liked him and I didn't want him to leave. Not ever.

"I'm not mad Bella," he said seriously.

"Then why are you leaving?" I demanded.

"I'm leaving because I'm not good for you," he answered sadly.

"I… I don't understand," I stuttered.

"I know," he said softly.

Before I could stop myself a tear was falling rolling down my cheek. Why was I such a mess?

It didn't take long before Edward was standing close before me and he wiped away my tear. The touch of his skin on mine left a burning sensation and I forgot everything else. It had been just as cold as when we first met, just as perfect. My heart stopped beating altogether and I stared into his golden eyes. They seemed a little darker now than I had remembered them but I figured it was just the light.

"Please don't cry," Edward whispered.

"Please don't leave," I replied softly, dropping my eyes to the floor.

"It's not right," he muttered.

"What's not right?" I still couldn't understand why he kept saying things like that.

"These feelings," he said.

"I'm sorry, I'm sure I can suppress them, we can still be friends," I offered weakly.

"I wasn't talking about yours silly," he said while lifting my chin with his finger so that I was staring into his eyes again.

"I'm confused," I stated simply.

"You don't know me Bella, and I don't know you! But I want to know you, more than anything. Since we met I haven't thought of anything else. It isn't right; this is not the way it's supposed to be. It feels like you've changed me completely and I don't know anything about you. I'm good at reading people Bella, I can normally tell really easily whether a person is good or not and what makes them tick, but with you I can't seem to figure it out. Of course I can see that you're a good person but for the rest you're a mystery to me. I can't get inside your head and it drives me insane! I want to get to know you because you fascinate me and you're not like anyone I've ever met," he explained softly, all the while smoldering me with his eyes.

I didn't understand what he was saying. I wasn't anything special. Why would I fascinate him? I wasn't that hard to figure out, there was nothing to figure out. I was a nobody. Especially compared to him.

"I don't know what to do about this Bella…" he continued sadly. "I'm not a good guy, I'm not right for you," he said.

His words made me think about my story. He wasn't a good guy. What did that mean? Does that mean there is indeed a connection between him and the disappearances? I didn't understand. I needed to find out.

"I don't understand, what does that mean?" I asked.

"I can't explain Bella, but I'm not good enough for you," he said.

"How do you know? You don't even know me!" I challenged almost angry that he would assume that so easily.

"I can just tell," he replied.

"You just said you couldn't tell, you're confusing me and I hate being confused!" I said, getting angrier.

"I'm sorry; I know this doesn't make any sense. But I like you too much to risk it," he said vaguely. "It's best if I go now."

"Please don't!" I begged again.

"I don't want to…" he started.

I didn't let him finish. "Then don't leave me!"

"Bella," he sighed.

"Please?" I begged, my eyes watering up again.

I told myself that was going to be the last time I was going to ask him to stay; if he didn't want to stay now then it would probably be for the best if he left. I could probably get the information for my story from Alice as well, if she did still want to be my friend…

To my surprise, instead of turning me down again, Edward took a step closer to me, placing his hand on my cheek. My heart started racing again and I wanted nothing more than to put my hands in his hair and place my lips on his. The fact that he hadn't left gave me hope and a bit more confidence.

"Bella, this isn't right," he said again.

"You said that already," I mentioned lightly.

"I mean it," he continued seriously.

"Yet still here you are," I replied confidently.

"So it seems," he breathed.

Slowly he brought his head closer to mine. His eyes were boring into mine, questioning if it was okay for him to continue. I just stared right back at him, trying not to do anything to scare him off again. He stopped when his lips were almost touching mine; one more time silently asking for my permission. In response I put my hands in his hair and stretched on my toes. Right before our lips touched I heard the front door open and I jumped back in surprise.

"Damn it!" I muttered inaudibly.

"I didn't hear his car," Edward said surprised and seeming genuinely upset.

"Bells?" Charlie's voice called.

"In the living room dad," I grumbled back in annoyance.

"Hi kiddo," he said as soon as he saw me.

"Hi dad," I replied, still unhappy about his bad timing.

I had been so close to kissing Edward Cullen!

I saw Charlie's eyes switching from me to Edward and back to me and it seemed like a light bulb went on in his head.

"Was I interrupting anything?" he asked me while raising his eyebrows suspiciously.

"No dad," I answered while blushing heavily. "This is Edward Cullen," I said while motioning towards Edward. "Edward, this is my father Charlie."

"It's nice to meet you chief Swan," Edward said politely while shaking my father's hand.

"Ah, so you're Edward," Charlie said meaningfully. I gave him an angry glare, internally cursing myself for having asked my father about Edward. "It's nice to meet you too, son. I met your father today, nice man."

"Thank you sir," Edward replied.

"And please, just call me Charlie," he continued a little uncomfortably. "Are you staying for dinner?"

"No sir, my parents are counting on me for dinner at home. I should be going," Edward said politely.

"Oh sure," Charlie replied.

"It was nice meeting you. Bella, I'm sure I'll see you around," he continued to me.

"I'll show you out," I offered, eager to be alone with him just a little longer.

Edward just smiled and waved goodbye at Charlie.

"Your father seems nice," he commented while we were standing at the door.

"He's alright," I said with a shrug.

It was silent for a moment and I felt uncomfortable. The moment we'd had had passed and I felt like I had missed my chance at ever kissing Edward, I'm sure he would have changed his mind by now.

"Bella?" Edward pulled me out of my thoughts.

"Hmmm?" I asked dumbly.

"I asked if you wanted to go somewhere tomorrow?" he said with a smile. "Just the two of us," he added quickly.

"That sounds like fun!" I replied enthusiastically. Maybe my chances hadn't passed completely yet.

"I'll come pick you up at 10 in the morning then." There was a lot of enthusiasm in his voice and I couldn't help but feel happy.

"Great," I replied.

Then Edward took my hand and placed a soft kiss on my knuckles. His lips felt smooth and cold and perfect. I wish I could feel them on mine. But Edward's eyes quickly shifted towards the living room window and as I followed his gaze I noticed my dad spying on us. I rolled my eyes at him in annoyance and he quickly closed the curtains, pretending he hadn't just been watching.

"He cares about you a lot," Edward commented after releasing my hand.

"Yeah," I just replied more than a little annoyed at the audacity my father had shown.

"Well, I'll see tomorrow then," Edward said cheerfully before sending a breathtaking crooked smile my way.

My breath got caught in my throat and my mind went blank for a second. "'Kay," was all I managed to choke out.

Edward let out a chuckle before turning on his heels and walking towards his car. He waved at me one more time before he disappeared into his vehicle and drove off.

"He seems like a nice boy," my father commented when I re-entered the living room.

_You have no idea!_ I thought with a smile.

_**

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A/N**__: You didn't think I was going to make it that easy on Bella now did you? :P Alright you all know it'll happen soon enough anyways ;) Hope you enjoyed the little Bella-Edward alone time ;) I'll be back tomorrow with a new update :) _

_Xxx_

_Thari_


	9. First Date

_**A/N**__: Hello everyone, I hope you're having a lovely day :) I, for some reason, am having an okay day for a change so that's good :D Guess the fact that I didn't have to work today had something to do with that but don't tell my boss ;) Anyways… A great big thanks to my amazing reviewers __**Yeye85**__ and __**Shirley**__, I'm glad you enjoyed the fluffiness ;) And I'm sure you'll enjoy today's fluffiness even more ;) _

_To __**Shirley the Japanese girl**__: I just love your new nickname :D I hope your headache is a bit better now :) Your frustrations cracked me up! Sorry to say that ;) But I'm sure today's chapter will be very much to your liking ;)_

_So Edward and Bella going on a date… Fluff guaranteed :) Enjoy!_

**

* * *

First Date**

The next morning I went over every question I wanted to ask Edward in my head. They all had to do with getting to know him better and to make sure that there was no connection between Edward and his family and the disappearances.

Of course the more I was thinking of my date with Edward the more nervous I became and the less focused on questions that had anything to do with my article I became. I got more focused on questions of the same caliber as "What's your favorite color?" and "How many girlfriends have you had already?" I didn't really want to know the last one because I was sure a boy like that wouldn't stay single for long but I felt morbidly curious nonetheless.

By the time it was 10 o'clock I had completely forgotten any of the questions I wanted - or rather needed - to ask him and was completely stressed out about my outfit. I had literally tried on every piece of clothing I owned and in every possible combination as well. And nothing seemed right for this occasion. It didn't help that I had no idea where we were going. I didn't know if I was going to have to go for formal or informal and heels or no heels. Picking the right clothing had never been this difficult before. It was ridiculous!

I settled for my favorite jeans, they were dark blue so they could be semi-formal-ish, well not really but that was the neatest I could wear without feeling uncomfortable or being unable to move. I combined it with a red shirt, simple but still nice. I quickly pulled my hair into a ponytail. The moment I ran downstairs I heard the bell and I ran straight to the door.

It wasn't smart of me to have hurried; now my head was red in excitement and I was practically panting. Charming impression that must leave…

I opened the door tentatively and there he was: a god. I was greeted by my favorite crooked smile.

"Hi," I managed to choke out.

"Good morning Bella, you look lovely," he complemented me and he seemed sincere so I relaxed a little.

"Thanks so do you," I replied shyly. "Do you want to come in?" I asked tentatively.

"No that's alright, we should get going. Unless you're not ready yet, then I'll come in and wait for you, there's no rush," he added quickly.

It was strange but it was almost like he was nervous about something.

"No I'm ready, let me just get my coat," I replied before I grabbed the first coat I saw that was mine and all but ran out the door.

It wasn't sunny today but luckily it wasn't really cold either.

After walking towards his Volvo in silence Edward opened the passenger door for me and helped me in. Before I knew it he was at his side of the car again and he backed it out of the driveway.

"So where are we going?" I asked after five minutes of driving in silence.

"It's a surprise," he said calmly.

"Oh," I muttered stupidly. I hate surprises!

For a moment I got worried. What if he was taking me to the forest? What if he _did_ have something to do with those disappearances? My heart sped up and I started to panic a little bit.

"Are you alright?" Edward asked as he glanced over to me as if he could hear my heart go berserk or something.

"Yeah, I was just wondering about where we're going," I replied lamely.

"Don't worry Bella, you'll like it," he said softly before stroking my cheek with his hand.

It was strange but the electricity I felt from his hand had a calming effect on me, of course I was blushing but I certainly wasn't thinking about where we were going anymore. Now I was only thinking about his wonderful hands, cool and smooth, and before I could stop myself my thoughts went to his lips, they were full and beautiful and I was wondering what it would feel like if they were touching mine.

The thought of us kissing made me blush even more and I quickly looked out the window before Edward would ask me what was wrong again and I would have to confess because lying to him was very hard for some reason. Sure we had almost kissed yesterday, but that was yesterday. I'm sure that in his sleep he had rethought the whole thing and realized that it was a good thing we hadn't kiss then because that's clearly not what he would want.

The rest of the ride Edward started to ask me all sorts of random questions; they were the kind of questions that I was planning on asking him, like my favorite color. It made it easier for me to ask him the same kind of questions.

"How many boyfriends have you had?" Edward asked me when we had been driving for quite a while already.

"One, he was my best friend and had been my best friend for a long time, so we had convinced ourselves that we were in love and decided to give dating a try. We dated all throughout high school but there wasn't any passion or anything, it was more like dating my brother," I explained softly. "How about you?" I asked stupidly, trying to take the attention away from me.

"Well, I've never had a boyfriend," he replied jokingly and I couldn't help but laugh. "But I can't imagine that you've only had one boyfriend before, guys must be lining up for you," he said thoughtfully.

"Not really," I muttered. "I'm not that special." I don't know why I added that last part, sure I thought it often enough but why would I need to share that with him. Right… Because I wanted to share everything with him and I didn't seem capable of stopping myself.

Edward was silent for a while, thoughtful it seemed.

"I can't believe you think that," he said all of a sudden, sounding upset and a little angry.

"What?" I was confused once again.

"I can't believe you think that you're not special. Bella, you're the most special person I have ever met, you're not like anyone else. And I mean that in a good way! You're wonderful, please believe that!" he said sternly. His eyes were boring into mine, silently pleading with me and I lost my train of thought.

"Uhm… Okay?" It came out as a question and not at all sure of what I was saying.

"Good," he said jokingly. "Now that that's settled."

"Have you had any girlfriends?" I interrupted him suddenly. When I realized how that must have sounded I turned bright red again. Sometimes I really thought it would be easier for me if my face was just a permanent shade of red, saved my body the trouble of having to pump all that blood to my face _every time_ I said or did something stupid.

Edward gave me a breathtaking smile. "No, I haven't had any girlfriends either," he said.

"How? Why? Huh?" I was flabbergasted. "Sorry, what I meant was, why not?" I said a little more calmly.

"Well, mostly because none of the girls I'd met before could hold my interest for longer than five seconds so it would be hard to date them. That is until I met you," he said sincerely and I was at a loss as to what to say.

So I just settled for my usual, brilliant reply. "Oh."

Edward smiled again and I hadn't even noticed that the car had stopped; I had been focusing on nothing but Edward for the past fifteen minutes.

"We're here," he said softly.

"Where is _here_?" I asked as I looked around and didn't see anything I recognized.

It wasn't at the forest as I had initially feared; also the drive had been too long for that. We were at an open space, there was nobody around and all I could see was a cliff with at the bottom the ocean. The cliff wasn't high and it wasn't too steep, it was a beautiful view I had to admit that.

"We're at one of my favorite places near Forks," he explained as he was watching me.

"It's beautiful," I admitted.

"This isn't everything," he continued. "I was wondering if you'd like to go for a walk on the beach with me?" he asked sounding a little insecure now.

"Sure," I replied enthusiastically. "But… Where is the beach?" I asked dumbly.

"Down there," he said while pointing at the cliff I had just been staring at.

"But…" I started to protest.

"Don't worry, I won't let anything happen to you, I promise," Edward said before I could finish my objections.

"Alright," I muttered in defeat and the smile Edward gave me made me sure of my decision. I would do anything to make him happy.

Edward kept his promise and I made it down the cliff in one piece. It wasn't even that hard, considering there had been steps carved into the cliff to make it easier. Edward had held my hand the entire time and it was strange how safe I felt with him. Seeing as how he was still a suspect in my investigation as well.

We walked along the beach, which turned out to be quite big and deserted, the entire afternoon. We held hands and talked about every little thing, even my story.

"Why won't you tell me what you're working on at the moment?" Edward pressed as we were walking back towards where he had parked the car.

"It's really not that interesting," I said softly.

"How can your first investigative job not be important?" he wondered, surprised. "How did you get the assignment?"

"Alright, well I don't know if you've heard about these disappearances in forests around Forks?" I asked.

Edward just nodded his head. He had heard of them.

"Well, I'm investigating that. My friend, Jacob, he lives on the reservation and he told me about those disappearances and that there was something strange about them, so I decided I wanted to know what was going on. I called my boss and he agreed to let me write the story, also because he didn't have any other reporters available and I knew the area anyways. It wouldn't be a problem for me to stay here until I had finished the story," I explained. "Jacob doesn't agree with me, he thinks it's too dangerous but if I want to be an investigative reporter I can't back down because a story might be dangerous because there wouldn't be any stories left for me to investigate then."

"But it _is_ dangerous Bella!" Edward exclaimed, sounding horrified. "Can't you write another story?"

"No, this is my chance, if I blow it now I won't get another one!" I said a little insulted.

"Can you at least promise you won't go into the woods by yourself?" he begged.

"I can't do that," I said softly.

We reached the car and Edward opened the door for me. His lips were pressed into a hard line and his eyes seemed dark. He was really mad at me. His expression made me flinch.

Edward noticed and he worked on softening his expression.

"I'm sorry Bella, I'm just worried about you," he said softly before stroking my cheek again.

"I'll be alright," I responded.

"You don't know what you're dealing with," he continued.

"I'll find out," I said confidently. "Can we please talk about something else?" I pleaded with him now.

Edward just stared at me for a moment and then gave in. "Just be careful," he said. "And promise me that you'll call me if you're ever in trouble!"

He gave me his number and I promised I would call him.

I had expected Edward to start driving again but instead he just sat there and stared at the ocean. I looked at him for a while, a bit confused.

"This used to always be my favorite part of the day," he said when he noticed my stare.

"Why?" I wondered. We had been gone for a long time, walking on the beach the entire afternoon and it was getting dark now.

"Twilight, it meant another day was over and I could just enjoy the evening," he said mysteriously. I had no idea what he was talking about.

"Used to be?" I wondered.

"Yes, because in the evening I didn't have to pretend or be someone I'm not, I would always just be at home with my family doing what I wanted to," he started. "But today, it means my time with you for this day is almost up and I have to go back to being alone around my family again," he continued to my surprise.

"Ah," I said, not knowing what else I could say. "Well, I had a great time today," I continued sincerely.

"Me too Bella, it was the best time I've had in a very long time," he said softly.

Then he just stared at me for a little bit and I stared right back into those beautiful golden colored eyes of his. It was like I could see them shift color slightly but it could also just be that it was getting darker outside.

"The sea is always so beautiful at this time," Edward murmured. "It used to be the most beautiful thing ever," he said without turning his gaze away from me. "The way the moonlight started to reflect on the surface of the water. But it's not anymore," he continued softly.

I couldn't speak; I was completely mesmerized by what Edward was saying. From the corner of my eye I could see the reflection of the moon, it was a full moon tonight and it was beautiful. But not as beautiful as the man sitting right next to me.

"Why not?" I wondered.

"Because I met you," he stated simply. I blushed heavily at his words. From any other guy I would think it was a cheesy and corny line but something about Edward made me believe him and think it was perfect.

"There was something I didn't get to do yesterday that I would like to see if I can get it right today," he murmured and my heart skipped a beat.

Was he really going to kiss me?

He moved his head closer to mine slowly. I picked up on his signals immediately and I knew where we went wrong yesterday, it took too long. I wasn't having that today; nothing was going to stop me from kissing this wonderful creature in front of me.

So I closed the distance between us quickly, crushing my lips to his softly. I could feel him smile against my lips before starting to move his lips in synchrony with mine. His lips were better than I had expected them to be, they were indeed cool and smooth but the taste was better than anything I could ever have thought of myself. It was like all good things in the world combined. It was heaven!

My hands moved on their own accord and before I knew it they were completely tangled in his beautiful hair, locking his face to mine. His hands travelled down my back, leaving a trail of electricity and goose bumps, and I shivered in pleasure. The shiver made Edward stop for a second but I just kept on kissing him, letting him know it was a good shiver. So he continued and before I even realized what was going on Edward lifted me from my seat like I was as light as a feather and he placed me on his lap.

Whenever I would see something like this in the movies I would always think it was extremely uncomfortable but now that it was happening to me I couldn't think of anything more perfect and more comfortable. I snuggled myself close to Edward and our lips continued to explore each other.

Too soon I had to break for air and I noticed Edward was slightly panting too. I laid my head against his chest and just rested there for a little bit, regaining control over my emotions and my thoughts, which were both completely scrambled.

We stared at the sea in silence for a while, just hugging. It was strange how cold Edward's body was and how hard his chest felt but it wasn't uncomfortable and I was in too much of a state of bliss to want to think of the reason behind this.

"We should head back," Edward said reluctantly after a while.

"Yeah, Charlie is probably already back from work, wondering when dinner will be served," I said just as reluctantly.

Edward chuckled. He placed a soft kiss in my hair before helping me back to my own seat.

We drove back in a comfortable silence; all the while Edward was holding on to my hand and rubbing circles along my palm with his thumb. I wanted to think about everything that had happened, get my thoughts straightened out but all I could think of right now was _wow!_ and _Edward Cullen kissed _me_!_. I was happier than I had ever been.

We arrived home too soon and my time with Edward was indeed up for today. I didn't want this to end. This day had been too perfect.

"I don't want you to leave," I said as Edward killed the engine.

Edward smiled his crooked smile at me and my heart started racing again. He pressed his lips to mine urgently for a moment. "I'll see you again really soon alright?" he promised.

"How soon?" I was pathetic.

Edward chuckled. "How about tomorrow? Soon enough?" he asked.

"Not really, but I guess it'll do," I said with a pout.

"Silly girl," Edward said lovingly.

"I'll come by tomorrow then, we can watch a movie or something," he offered.

"Sounds good!" I said enthusiastically.

Edward stepped out of the car, walked over to my side and helped me out as well. We walked to the door hand in hand. I was dragging my feet to prolong the time I could be with him and Edward just smiled at me.

"So what does this mean?" I asked when we arrived at the front door.

"This means it's time for me to go," he said.

"That's not what I meant," I grumbled.

"What did you mean then love?" he asked curiously.

My heart skipped a beat when he said love but I decided to ignore that. I saw a small smile play around Edward's lips as if he could really hear my heart, which was the second time today already. Strange.

"I meant, what are we now? Are we just friends? Or are you my boyfriend? Or what?" I felt like such a child when I asked but I was curious nonetheless. I blushed heavily and waited for his answer.

"What do you want me to be?" he said while raising one of his eyebrows.

"Uhm…" I said tentatively. I wanted to shout at him 'I want you to be my boyfriend!' but I was afraid that would scare him off.

"Because personally I feel like we're more than just friends, so I wouldn't mind calling you my girlfriend if you want that too," he said softly.

"I'd love that!" I exclaimed happily.

"Alright, then from now on I'm your boyfriend," he stated simply. "I should go now; your father is probably waiting. Goodnight my sweet Bella, I will see you tomorrow," Edward said sweetly before kissing my lips once more.

"Bye," I said lamely.

I waved Edward goodbye before closing the front door. _Edward Cullen is my boyfriend!_ The thought made me unable to stop smiling the rest of the evening. _I'm Edward Cullen's girlfriend!_ This does complicate things with respect to my story… But that would have to wait until tomorrow. For tonight, I settled for perfect happiness.

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A/N**__: Well, hope you liked the fluffiness :) At first I was thinking about letting them go to the meadow but with all the things going on in the woods… That wouldn't be very 'Edward-like' now would it? Plus I wanted to try something else for a date for our favorite couple ;) Hope you liked it :) Can't wait to hear your thoughts :) As always… I'll be back tomorrow with a new update :)_

_Xxx_

_Thari_


	10. Uncovering One Secret

_**A/N**__: Thanks to my very loyal reviewers, __**Yeye85**__, __**Shirley**__ and __**Kristin Stewart Is My Life**__. You rock! _

_To __**Yeye85**__: I'm glad you loved the fluff ;)_

_To my favorite Japanese girl: Your reviews never fail to crack me up :D Thanks for the sweet words on the chapter :) AWESOME REVIEW! :D You rock! :D_

_To __**Kristin Stewart Is My Life**__: I'm glad you loved the romance ;) I love writing romance so I guess that's a good thing ;)_

_Sorry for the late update, trains were being annoying and had some school stuff to worry about :P but I'm here now :) Hope you enjoy this chapter! :)_

_Also: I'm absolutely sure now that this story will have 17 chapters (or rather 16 chapters and an Epilogue ;)) so only 7 updates left after this one :) And since I managed to write a few chapters today and now have almost completed the 16__th__ chapter I can guarantee with 99.9% certainty that I'll be uploading daily this entire story :)_

_Enjoy today's chapter and reviews make me very happy :) _

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Uncovering One Secret**

That night I lay awake tossing and turning. I had expected that after the date I had had with Edward only a few hours before and those wonderful kisses I would be sound asleep as soon as my head hit my pillow. But it had turned out to be quite the opposite.

As soon as my head had touched down on the pillow my brain thought it was fun to go over every little detail of what had happened. I didn't mind replaying our first kiss in my mind over and over again, I quite enjoyed that. I just didn't enjoy the worries that the kiss brought with it.

Edward's lips had been smooth and hard, not to mention cold. Admittedly I had only kissed one guy before, but Jacob's lips had been warm and soft. Sure now I knew that Jacob wasn't human but I couldn't imagine that it was _normal_ for someone to have lips that felt like they were made out of marble. And it wasn't just his lips; his entire body seemed cold and hard as a rock. It didn't seem natural to me.

From wondering about his unnatural lips I had easily gone to his unnatural strength, the ease with which he had lifted me into his lap. I couldn't imagine any guy who was capable of doing something like that. Normally someone would have to put his entire body into lifting me right? Edward had only used his arms. It was strange to say the least.

It was currently five in the morning and I was still awake. I was going over everything in my head again. I summed it up to give my thoughts some structure. Edward had unnatural body temperature and was unnaturally strong. Then I thought about his eyes and how I had seen them shift color. I had just ascribed it to the change of light but I hadn't noticed anything else changing color the way his eyes had done. They had gone from a light golden color to dark and back to gold quite often now and I had never seen anything like it before.

I decided I wasn't going to get any sleep tonight anyways so I grabbed my laptop and waited patiently for it to start up. As soon as my laptop was ready I opened a new document. I wasn't sure if I was going to add all of this to my article or if I should just open a new document just for Edward. It seemed silly to do either of the two but I just had to do something to get my thoughts straight. I decided to first reread the notes I had made for my article, to see if I could find something useful.

"There is something strange with the Cullens" I read in my notes. So I had already noticed something about it before, I just hadn't given it any thought really. But now that I was thinking about it Alice's touch was just as cold as Edward's was and they were all extremely pale with the same golden colored eyes. It had to be something genetic then.

No that couldn't be it, because none of the children were biologically Carlisle's and Esme's. But how come they were so much alike then?

I knew Jacob's 'condition' - if you could call it that - was genetically determined. I wasn't getting anywhere with this.

I decided to just google werewolves, if that myth was true than maybe there was something supernatural to Edward and the rest of the Cullens as well. I found several different myths but none of them seemed to fit.

In my notes I had written "like vampires". I looked at everything I could find on vampires but none of it really rang any bells when I looked at it with respect to the Cullens.

Until I found one article that said that they were cold to the touch. It was in an old tribal story that I found this piece of information and decided to read the rest. The more I read the more confused I got, could it really be that the Cullens are vampires? The story described them as cold to the touch, skin made of impenetrable rock and extremely pale. That description fit Edward and his family. But there was more. At a certain point I read the words "no pulse" and I remembered lying against Edward's chest. I hadn't really focused on it back then of course but now that I was thinking about it I couldn't recall hearing a heartbeat. I didn't feel a pulse or anything. I did feel his chest move with his breathing but there was nothing else that I could remember.

"Vampires have red eyes," the article continued and that threw me off. I was almost convinced the Cullens were indeed vampires but their eyes were golden not red. I let out a sigh in relief and decided to put away this stupid article as well.

The article did remind me of the legend Jacob had told me so long ago about the Cold Ones. But there was probably nothing wrong with the Cullens, I was just making things up because of my article and because I was probably scared to fall completely in love with Edward.

Edward was coming over today again and if these thoughts hadn't left my mind completely by then, I would just ask him if there was some truth to it all. For now I would just let it rest.

As soon as I had made that decision and turned off my computer it was easier for me to fall asleep. I managed to get in 5 hours of sleep before it was time for me to get out of bed and get ready to see Edward. He would be here at noon.

At exactly 12 o'clock the doorbell rang and there he was, my beautiful boyfriend, with the uneven smile that I loved so much and carrying a bouquet of flowers.

"Hi," I replied happily, forgetting all about my troubles sleeping.

"Hello love," he said sweetly before giving me a peck on the lips. "These are for you," he said when he handed me the flowers.

"They're beautiful but you didn't have to spend any money on me," I complained half-heartedly.

"I just wanted to give you something, don't be difficult," he said with a smile before he walked past me into the house.

I went to the kitchen to put the flowers in water.

"So what movie do you want to watch?" Edward asked while putting his arms around my waist and placing a kiss in my neck.

It was strange how quickly we had gotten so close but it felt so right at the same time.

"I don't really care, we don't have that many DVDs though," I said softly, slightly distracted by his proximity.

"That's alright, what's your favorite movie? I'm sure you have that one on DVD don't you?" he asked sweetly.

I didn't really want to admit that Romeo and Juliet was my favorite movie but it didn't matter which one of the DVDs I would name anyways because they were all equally girly and cheesy; at least Romeo and Juliet was a classic.

"Romeo and Juliet," I muttered weakly.

"We'll watch that one then," he said without missing a beat.

"Alright," I gave in.

I put on the DVD and Edward had already installed himself on the couch. He patted the space next to him for me to join him and I gladly complied. The couch wasn't too big but we made it work and I was very comfortably lying against his chest barely focusing on the movie because Edward was absentmindedly playing with a strand of my hair and occasionally kissing the top of my head sweetly.

I didn't miss the fact that his chest still felt unusually hard and cold and silly as I was I decided to focus on his pulse just to prove all those stupid theories wrong. I subtly tried to shift my head so that it still seemed like I was focused on the movie but my ear was closer to his heart. I failed.

"You can't possibly still be comfortable that way," Edward commented as soon as I had taken my position and my ear was directly above his heart.

"Uhm," I choked out feeling busted.

Edward lifted my chin in order to look at me and I was bright red, feeling very uncomfortable and sort of like a small child.

"What's wrong?" Edward asked, sounding a little worried now.

"Nothing?" It came out as a question again and I knew Edward wouldn't buy it.

"Bella?" he pressed.

"Fine, I just wanted to listen to your heart," I said stupidly.

"Why?" he seemed completely shocked and a little angry.

"Uhm… I don't know," I choked out, taken aback by his sudden change of mood.

"What do you mean you don't know?" he was getting angrier by the minute and I flinched.

"It's stupid," I said softly.

Edward must have seen me flinch because his tone was softer the next time he spoke. "Bella, is there something you want to know?"

"What are you?" I managed to choke out before all the blood in my body rushed to my cheeks. I felt like my head would explode from all the pressure and I must have looked ridiculous.

"What do you mean?" Edward asked, still sounding kind but there was something different about him now. I could tell that he knew exactly what I was talking about but it seemed like he was just buying some time.

"Well, it's silly really," I tried but knew it wouldn't work anyway.

"Tell me anyways," he pressed very seriously all of a sudden.

"Well, alright, remember yesterday our kiss?" I stumbled.

"Yes," he said with a slight smile.

"Well, you lifted me up so easily," I continued. "It didn't seem like that was humanly possible. And your lips were hard and cold and so is the rest of your body and your eyes have a strange color of gold and your skin is extremely pale and I don't know," I rambled.

"And you don't think I'm human," he summed up, not asking.

"Yes, no, I don't know," I said confused.

"What do you think I am then? Why were you listening to my heart?" he continued.

"Well, last night I couldn't sleep so I went on the internet and I came across this stupid tribal myth about a creature without a pulse who was extremely pale and had skin made out of rock, but they said that this creature had red eyes," I explained. "So I put it away and thought I was imagining things anyways but now that we were lying here I got curious again," I admitted with a blush.

"You can listen if you want," Edward offered.

He laid back a little and I pressed my ear against his chest, feeling silly. I fully expected a pulse but after listening for about a minute or so and moving my ear all over his chest I concluded he didn't seem to have one.

"You don't have a pulse?" I asked even though I knew the answer by now.

"No I don't," he admitted.

"But how?" I was confused.

"What were those creatures you read about called?" he asked calmly.

"Uuhm…" I tried to stall as long as I could, afraid Edward would get angry with me if I said the word out loud.

"I won't get mad," he pressed, still sounding calm and nice.

"Vampires?" Again a question.

"That's right," he said slightly backing away from me to measure my response.

"But your eyes are gold," I said dumbly.

"That's because me and my family aren't regular vampires," he explained.

"What do you mean?"

"A vampire's eyes turn red when he or she feeds on human blood." I flinched slightly at his statement but Edward continued nonetheless. "My family and I, we do not feed on humans. Don't get me wrong, we are still dangerous to humans because the lure is always there. That's why it was a huge mistake for me to fall in love with you and especially to become your boyfriend but I couldn't seem to be able to stop myself. But I fully understand if you don't want me to come anywhere near you ever again and I will honor your wishes if that's the case," he added quickly.

So that meant that they were the Cold Ones Jacob's ancestors had made a treaty with, the ones who didn't feed off of humans. I trusted what Edward said, I didn't think he or any of his family members could be capable of anything like that. His father was a doctor for crying out loud. And I didn't want him to stay away from me; I loved him, no matter what he was.

"What do you eat?" I wondered.

"Really, you just found out what I am and you're _curious_? You don't want to run away screaming?" he asked surprised.

"I trust you, you won't hurt me," I said confidently.

"I will do everything in my power not to hurt you Bella but that doesn't mean that I won't, I can slip up. I _am_ a monster Bella! Please know that," he was begging.

"No you're not, you don't feed on humans and you even fell in love with one! You can't be bad, I won't believe that," I replied stubbornly.

"You don't know what you're saying Bella, I have killed humans in the past!" he was still pleading with me as if he wanted me to run away screaming like he suggested earlier.

"I won't run away!" I said confidently.

"I don't want you to, I love you," he said softly.

I was shocked. He actually said he loved me! I couldn't have been happier then I was right now. No matter all the questions I still had for him, he loved me!

I quickly closed the distance between us and crushed my lips to his. He seemed shocked at first and didn't move but I insisted long enough to get a response out of him. He loosened up and his arms sneaked around my waist, pulling my closer to him. His lips moved with mine softly at first but more passionate afterwards. We continued our kiss until I needed to break for air again. Edward's lips didn't leave my skin for one moment. He just started placing kisses along my jaw and down my neck, cautiously eying my response. I smiled at him, letting him know that I trusted him before I moved my head back a little, granting him access to my throat. I could feel him smile against my skin as well before he continued his trail of kisses.

"Thank you," he said softly after a while.

"For what?" I asked curiously. I was the one who should be thanking him. I didn't deserve anyone as beautiful as he is.

"For accepting me and still having me," he said softly. "But if you ever change your mind and want me to leave don't be afraid to hurt my feelings, just tell me alright? Promise me!" he said seriously.

"I promise," I vowed. "But don't get your hopes up," I added lightly. "I love you too."

"Stupid girl," he said lovingly before pulling me in for another kiss.

We watched the rest of the movie in silence and I was comfortably lying against his chest. It felt quite perfect. Edward was mindlessly playing with my hair again and continued to press kisses either in my hair or on my cheek or in my neck. Every time I would try to turn my head in order to kiss him back he would just press his nose against my cheek, forcing my head back in the direction of the screen.

"You wanted to watch this movie," he would say playfully and I would just grumble in annoyance but comply nonetheless.

The movie ended quickly and even though I had only been watching with half of my focus I still had to cry a little in the end. Their ending always made me extremely sad. So I kept my head away from Edward in hopes that he wouldn't notice.

"Are you crying?" Of course he would notice.

"No," I said but my voice gave me away.

"What's wrong?" he asked worried.

"I just think the movie is so sad!" I said stupidly.

"Isn't it your favorite movie?" he asked surprised.

"So?" I questioned.

"Well, why do you like it if it makes you sad?"

"Because it's beautiful and their love is epic!" I explained as if Edward was a little child.

"Right," he muttered but let it go.

"What do you want to do now?" I asked for the sake of changing the topic.

"Well, I'm sure you still have many questions for me?" he replied.

"Yes, of course."

"Well, it might be nicer if you can hear it from my entire family? That is if you still want to be around them?" he said cautiously.

"Of course! I love your family!" I said excitedly.

"Great, well we can go talk to all of them later then?" he offered.

"Later?" I asked, already excited to see all of them again. Not that it had been that long since I'd seen any of them, only a few days actually but I already missed them stupidly enough.

Edward chuckled. "Yes, later. Carlisle is still at the hospital working right now, and Esme, Rosalie and Alice have gone to Seattle for a shopping spree, they'll all be back tonight so why don't I come pick you up after dinner? Then I can prepare them a little as well and maybe you could tell your father about us then?" he offered.

"About your family?" I asked a little confused. "Shouldn't that stay a secret?"

"Not us as in my family you silly girl, us as in you and me," he replied with a loving smile.

"Right, I knew that," I muttered while blushing and Edward chuckled.

"Great, it's settled then, I'll come by later tonight to pick you up then," he said. "I should go now though, I promised Emmett and Jasper I'd go hunting with them and since we're not doing that tonight, we might as well do it now. Would be wise anyways," he said while cautiously eying my response.

"Hunting?" I asked.

"Right, yes, I never did answer that question of yours. My family and I, we do drink blood Bella. But we feed on animals instead of humans, we hunt animals," he stated quickly.

"Alright," I replied simply. "Have fun?"

Edward chuckled. "You are one amazing girl Bella Swan! And I guess have fun will do," he said before pressing his lips to mine sweetly. "I love you! I'll see you tonight," he said before walking out the door.

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A/N**__: That was it for yet another chapter :) Hope you liked it :) See you all tomorrow ;)_

_Xxx_

_Thari_


	11. Parents and Information

_**A/N**__: I'll keep it short today because I have to get back to work in like 10 minutes :P Thanks to __**Sur-lee**__ and __**Yeye85**__ for reviewing! _

_To __**Yeye85**__: Bad vamps won't show up this chapter but they'll be here soon :) If I'm not mistaken they'll be here the day after tomorrow ;)_

_To __**Sur-lee**__: Very Japanese indeed :P Such a complement that you think I've outdone myself :) I'm glad you liked the chapter so much :) And here's the second chapter for you to read today ;) Enjoy! :D _

_Enjoy and leave me a review please ;)_

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Parents and Information**

Telling Charlie that I was dating Edward now wasn't quite as uncomfortable as it had been telling him that Jacob and I were dating. At the time I had thought he would have known better than to actually start a conversation about 'being careful' and 'protection' but I had been wrong. It was never really easy to talk to Charlie about emotions or the likes but that definitely took the cake. Of course Jacob and I had decided to tell Charlie together. Big mistake that had been! Because Charlie really knew no shame and he started "the talk" _in front of Jacob_! He thought it would be wise if we both heard him out. Of course Billy had already told Jacob everything when he had been little and I had already heard everything from my mother as well, so there really was no point to the whole conversation other than complete embarrassment on my part.

But now telling Charlie about Edward, I was afraid he would start again about the whole safe sex and everything. At least this time Edward wasn't there. I was also afraid that Charlie wouldn't approve of Edward. Charlie had known Jacob since the day Jacob had been born and he had liked him just as long as well. Charlie had been ecstatic that the two of us started dating, planning grand children with Billy like the two of them were two old ladies, it was pathetic. So when I told Charlie that Jacob and I had decided to just be friends and nothing more it was almost like his heart had broken and I knew he would never think any guy would be good enough for me again. So I was afraid to break the news to him that I was dating Edward, especially since Charlie didn't really know Edward.

"Dad?" I asked when I had finished preparing dinner.

"Hmm?" was his only reply. He didn't even bother looking away from the game he was watching.

"Dinner is ready," I said lamely, coward as I was.

"Right," he muttered as he reluctantly got up from his chair and walked towards the dinner table. "Smells good Bells," he said with a small smile.

"Thanks," I replied. "Dad?" I started again.

"Yes?"

"You remember Edward Cullen right?" I continued carefully.

"Yes?" Charlie asked a little more interested now.

"Well, he… He… He sort of is my boyfriend now," I blurted out uncomfortably.

"Oh, yes I suspected something like that," Charlie replied to my surprise.

"What do you mean? I haven't even known him for that long!" I said taken aback.

"I know, I mean I didn't know that he was your boyfriend or anything but I knew that sooner or later it was going to happen. He seems like a nice enough boy," he said kindly.

"Right, yes, well he's great really," I said sincerely.

"That's good Bells. And hey, at least now you have another reason to come to Forks more often," he added cheerfully.

"Guess so," I said with a smile, completely relieved.

We ate the rest of our dinner in comfortable silence, the same we always did. Charlie was eager to get back to the game he had been watching so I told him I'd do the dishes and he could go watch.

"I'm going over to Edward's!" I called as soon as I was finished and I saw the silver Volvo driving onto our driveway.

"Not so fast," Charlie said to my surprise. "Why don't you let Edward come in for a moment?"

"Dad! Don't do this _again_!" I said, reminding him of the whole incident with Jacob.

"Don't worry Bells, I know better than to start that talk again," he said while rolling his eyes at me. "I don't need you hiding your boyfriend for me for a month again," he continued bitterly. "I just want to have a word with the boy before you leave."

"Fine," I grumbled. "No funny business though!" I warned him.

I walked to the door to meet Edward and I was greeted by a breathtaking smile. "Hello love," he said as he bent down to give me a kiss.

"Hi," I replied uncomfortably.

"Your dad wants to talk to me am I right?" he said with a grin.

"Yes, how did you…?" I started.

Edward pointed to his ears. "Vampire hearing," he added conspiringly.

"Right," I muttered as I moved aside to let Edward into the house.

"Good evening sir," Edward said while he extended his hand for Charlie to shake.

"What did I say about the whole sir thing Edward? But good evening to you too," Charlie said with a smile.

"Sorry," Edward said not sounding uncomfortable at all.

Luckily I was uncomfortable enough for the both of us as I stood nailed to the ground waiting for Charlie to make his move. This was bound to be embarrassing in some way or another.

"I'm sure Bella thinks I'm going to embarrass her but that's not my goal right now. She told me the two of you are dating?" Charlie started.

"That's right," Edward replied politely.

"Alright well then as her father it is my duty to make sure she's in good hands," Charlie continued matter-of-factly.

"Dad!" I groaned in frustration but I was ignored by both my boyfriend and my father… Great!

"Of course, I adore your daughter Charlie, she is amazing and I will do everything in my power to make sure she's happy and safe," Edward said sincerely.

"Good!" Charlie replied contently. "That was all I needed to hear, you kids have a good time now," he said as he returned to the living room to watch his game.

I just stared after my dad in shock for a few moments. I was so sure he was going to embarrass me. But this had actually been kind of sweet. Uncomfortable, but sweet nonetheless.

"Your father cares about you a lot," Edward said sweetly as we were walking to the car.

"I know, but I wish he wouldn't embarrass me like that," I said.

"It's not embarrassing to me; I think it's really good that he does that! It's his job to make sure his daughter is in good hands," Edward said sincerely.

"I guess," I muttered, reluctant to continue this conversation.

We arrived at the Cullen house not much later due to Edward's insane driving. The speed would have driven me crazy before but it didn't bother me as much anymore nowadays. Besides, Edward seemed to really be enjoying himself when he was driving as fast as he did and I trusted he was capable of avoiding any obstacles so I didn't say anything about it.

"They're here!" I heard Alice shout the moment we got out of the car.

She dashed outside and pulled me in for a hug. "Hi Bella!" she squealed.

I could tell the rest of the family was tensing up, along with Edward. I couldn't help but smile at her obvious enthusiasm and I was very happy to see her again too.

"Oh will you all just relax? She's fine with it all otherwise she wouldn't have still been with Edward and she wouldn't be smiling right now!" Alice threw at her family.

"She's right, you can relax," I said calmly.

"Let's go inside," Edward said while rolling his eyes at his sister, who in turn rewarded him by showing him her tongue.

All of the Cullens walked inside, all but Esme, who was standing in the opening of the door and looking at me like she wasn't sure what to do next. I smiled broadly at her before I gave her a hug too; I figured that was exactly what she had been doubting.

"I'm sorry Bella, thank you for being so understanding," she whispered in my ear as she hugged me back.

"No problem, nothing has changed I still love you all the same," I assured her.

"You're the best!" Edward whispered as we walked towards the living room and I just smiled back at him.

We all sat down at the dinner table. I realized how strange that actually was since I was pretty sure they didn't actually use this table for _eating_. Carlisle noticed my expression and started to chuckle.

"I guess it is a bit ironic to sit here but it's good for family meetings," he explained with a grin. I just smiled back in understanding.

The rest of the family just looked at our exchange with strange looks.

"I was just thinking how strange it was to be sitting at the dinner table considering you probably don't eat here," I explained to the rest while blushing. The rest just laughed.

"So Bella, what do you want to know? I'm sure you have a million questions for us," Carlisle started when it was quiet again.

"Uuhm," I said uncomfortably. I hadn't really given it a lot of thought what I would ask them all. "I already know that you don't feed on humans," I said calmly. "But why not? It seems that's the natural thing for you to do," I continued thoughtfully, hoping I didn't offend anyone.

Emmett was the only one laughing at my question, but the rest didn't look angry. Rosalie gave Emmett an angry glare. "What? I think it's funny she wants to know that," he said with a shrug.

"Like this isn't uncomfortable enough for her as it is you have to laugh at her?" she shot back at him.

"I don't really mind," I offered weakly.

"See, she doesn't mind!" Emmett repeated childishly.

"Well, alright then," Rosalie said while smiling at me. "But if you ever do mind what he's doing, just let me know alright and I'll take care of it," she continued with a wink.

"Thanks, will do." I smiled back at her broadly. I'm glad things weren't uncomfortable between any of us.

"As for your question," Carlisle started. "I'm afraid that's my fault," he said sounding a bit sad.

"What do you mean?" I pressed.

"Well, it isn't natural for us to not feed on humans, but when a vampire changed me I was appalled by what I had become and I swore that I would never drink human blood. It does make us slightly weaker than other vampires and it isn't easy having to resist giving in to your greatest desire all the time but it gets easier the longer you go without human blood. I have never drunk human blood, but that isn't the case for all of us. I'm sure everyone will want to tell you their story themselves but I am afraid I am responsible for the discomfort that not drinking human blood has caused my family," he still sounded sad.

"You give yourself too much credit Carlisle!" Esme said jokingly. "We wouldn't be following your beliefs if we didn't agree with you."

"But isn't it hard for you to be a doctor then, if the call of human blood is so big?" I asked curiously.

"Not really, I've learned to deal with it over the years, I hardly notice it anymore. But it has taken a long time for me to actually be able to practice medicine. I decided I wanted to help humans rather quickly after my change, when I knew that starving myself to death wasn't an option. I knew that working in a hospital would mean I could do great things for humans but mastering the skills and ignoring the blood were hard in the beginning. Luckily the morphine and all the other drugs the patients have to take make their blood smell less appealing, making it easier for me to be around them," he explained calmly.

"Alright, that's really impressive," I said thoughtfully.

"Thank you," Carlisle said with a smile.

"How do you become a vampire?" I hadn't even wanted to ask that question but it seemed a logical one to ask anyway.

I could feel Edward tensing up next to me and I glanced over to see why. His lips were pressed in a hard line and his eyes had gone completely dark and for some reason he was glaring at Alice. I looked back at Alice and she had a strange, blank expression on her face. I looked at Carlisle and he was obviously also deliberating something while looking at Edward.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"What do you mean?" Carlisle asked snapping out of his thoughts.

"Why does it look like Edward is angry at Alice or something and like they are having some sort of conversation that we're not invited to?" I said knowing how stupid it sounded.

"You noticed that huh?" Carlisle said thoughtfully but it almost looked like he was _proud_.

"They always do that, they're freaky that way," Emmett said jokingly.

"So what's going on then?" I pressed.

"Did Edward tell you that some vampires have special powers?" Esme spoke for the first time.

"No he did not," I said surprised while shooting an accusing glare in Edward's direction. "What kind of powers?"

"I can read people's minds," Edward jumped in before anyone else could say anything.

"You what? And you didn't think that was something worth mentioning?" I exclaimed horrified by what he must have read from my mind. I could feel the mother of all blushes coming on and I wanted to run away and hide.

Emmett started laughing. "You've done it now bro! The human is getting angry at the vampire," he snickered.

I just shot Emmett a glare and Rosalie smacked him on the back of his head.

"You're welcome," she said smugly when I shot her a thankful smile.

"But why didn't you tell me?" I returned my attention to Edward, still feeling very uncomfortable and not sure how to handle the situation. He must think I'm so stupid and that I'm only using him for my story or who knew what he thought; _I _wasn't the one who could read minds…

"Don't worry love, I can't read yours," he said sounding a bit sad.

"So you can't read all minds?" I asked tentatively trying hard to hide my relief but failing.

Edward smiled. "No apparently not. This has never happened to me before; I always thought I could read everyone's mind. Until I met you that is. Your mind so far is the only mind I cannot read," he explained.

"Oh, that's a relief," the words were out before I realized and I blushed again.

Carlisle chuckled. "You're lucky, you have no idea how frustrating it can be to have him in your mind the entire time," he said jokingly.

"Alright but you said _some_ vampires have special powers, that means not all do?" I turned my attention back to Esme.

"I'm afraid not. Well, I for one am just a normal vampire, no special powers; Carlisle, Rosalie and Emmett have the same thing. Special powers are quite rare in our world, just as they are in yours, and we are lucky enough to have three vampires in our family who have special powers," Esme explained.

"So Edward can read minds, what can Jasper and Alice do then?" I asked curiously.

"I can influence people's emotions, I can sense them as well as manipulate them," Jasper said.

"Ah," I said, not sure I understood what he meant.

"I'll demonstrate," he offered.

Out of the blue he pounded on Emmett who fell off his chair and onto the floor with a loud bang.

"Hey! You sucker punched me!" Emmett said a little angrily.

"Now watch," Jasper said with a smile. I just stared at the two boys with wide eyes.

Emmett was ready to hit Jasper and he looked upset but right before he fired his fist forward he completely relaxed and smiled serenely.

"That's not fair!" Emmett complained. "We are going to finish this later!" he promised.

"You see?" Jasper asked as he took his place next to Alice again.

"I think I understand yes, that's quite a handy power," I commented.

"Thanks," Jasper said with a smile.

"My turn!" Alice chimed. "I can see the future!" she said mysteriously.

"You what?" I asked incredulously. "Like a fortuneteller?"

"No silly, those are just tricksters. I'm the real deal," she announced proudly. "But I can only see results of a decision, so it's not like I can foresee things when the important decisions aren't made yet. For instance, I couldn't see how you were going to react to Edward and the rest of us being vampires because you hadn't decided how you were going to react yet. But I could see your future with Edward the moment you decided you wanted to be part of this family," she said quickly and I heard Edward growl angrily.

"So that was why he was glaring at you? He was reading your mind while you were seeing the future? Our future?" I wondered.

"She's really bright Edward!" Carlisle said, sounding proud.

"Yes." Alice nodded her head.

"Then what did you see?" I pressed.

"Alice's visions are subjective Bella, they aren't set in stone! Everything can still change!" Edward said sternly and I flinched at his tone but knew better than to continue that line of questioning.

"It's getting quite late Bella, why don't we continue this later?" Carlisle offered, sensing the tension in the room.

"Alright," I said reluctantly.

"I promise we will answer all your other questions another day alright, but now you have to rest," he said kindly before rising from the table.

The rest of the family did the same.

"I'll take you home," Edward said, still not sounding very kind.

"Right," I muttered weakly.

"Relax Edward!" Alice said while staring intently into his eyes.

"Fine," he grumbled and I was curious to know what she said but I knew better than to ask.

"Bye everyone! Thanks for having me here tonight," I said shyly.

"It was our pleasure," Esme said sweetly before giving me a hug.

"See you soon!" Rosalie said kindly.

"Welcome to the family," Emmett said with a wink and I couldn't help but beam back at him.

"Sweet dreams!" Alice called after us as Edward guided me out the door.

I was afraid to speak, scared that Edward was still angry so I just glanced out the window the entire ride back.

"I'm sorry," Edward said as soon as we arrived at my home. "I shouldn't have gotten as mad as I did, but you have to understand that this life that we're leading, it isn't a life that I would wish for anyone! We're monsters Bella, whether you believe it or not and I wish I was strong enough to stay away from you but I love you too much for that."

"So that's what Alice saw then? She saw me become one of you." It wasn't a question.

"It doesn't have to be that way," Edward said more to himself than to me. "I don't want to take away your life."

"Why don't we discuss that later?" I offered. I hadn't even given it too much thought myself anyway, I knew I wanted to be with Edward forever but I still had some things to figure out before forever came along.

"Alright," Edward gave in, softening up a little.

"Will you stay with me tonight?" I asked before I even realized what I was asking.

"After all this you want me to stay the night?" he asked curiously.

"Yes, I love you and I want to be with you," I said confidently.

"Why don't I come back when your father is asleep then alright?" he offered.

I beamed at Edward, looking forward to that plan.

"Great! I'll see you later tonight then!" I said enthusiastically before putting my arms around Edward and pulling him down so I could kiss his lips passionately.

"I love you Bella," Edward said when I had to break free for air. _Stupid breathing!_

"I love you too Edward," I said sincerely before Edward kissed my lips once more.

I couldn't wait until it was tonight and I got to sleep in his arms.

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A/N**__: That was today's chapter :) Hope you liked it :) I for one loved writing this one :) I'm a sucker for fluff ;) I'll see you all tomorrow :)_

_Xxx_

_Thari_


	12. Big Mistake

_**A/N**__: Well I'm happy to inform you all that I have finally finished writing all the chapters for this story, yay ;) A big thanks to all my reviewers: __**Kristin Stewart Is My Life**__, __**Sur-Lee**__ and __**Yeye85**__, you guys rock!_

_To everyone: I was sick of reading about Rosalie being a ** so I decided to write her nice in this story ;) I'm glad you guys seem to like that ;) _

_Early update today because I have softball practice in a little bit (YAAAY! (That's actually a genuine yaay because I love softball ;):P)). Enjoy chapter 12 :) _

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Big Mistake**

As soon as I got home I ran upstairs to my laptop. It was time I started seriously working on my article now because it had already been way too long since I've started working on it, I was going to have to write it sooner or later and Adam wouldn't give me forever to finish it. I opened my notes as soon as my laptop was ready.

_Jacob is acting weird_

_Disappearances since 6 or 7 weeks ago_

_Around area of Forks_

_Deaths several weeks after going missing, drained of blood completely (like vampires)_

_Edward Cullen and his family moved here 6 or 7 weeks ago_

_Connections?_

_Jacob is a werewolf_

_Cullens live in a secluded house, they don't mingle much with the rest of the town_

_There is something strange with the Cullens_

_The Cullens are nice _

And I decided to organize them a bit better with what I knew now. I decided I was going to ask the Cullens tomorrow if they knew anything about these disappearances, maybe they could help me out now that I ruled them out as suspects.

_Jacob is a werewolf_

I put that in because I thought it was still a very strange thing and I just needed a place to put it.

_Disappearances have been going on for 8 weeks or so_

_Woods near Forks_

_Victims completely drained of blood __ Done by vampires_

Now that I knew vampires were real I didn't see any other logical explanation as to why the victims would be completely drained of blood.

_The Cullens moved to Forks the same time as when the disappearances started_

_The Cullens are vampires_

There, that seemed a lot clearer now. I would ask the Cullens tomorrow about other vampires that might be nearby and then I'll see where I'll go from there.

I decided to reread that tribal story that I had found earlier, now that I knew that they were right about vampires, just not all vampires, it seemed like good research.

The article explained that a mere human isn't capable of killing a vampire; their skin is impenetrable so a stake through the heart - like some myths claimed could kill a vampire - would merely break and garlic wouldn't really do much other than perhaps annoy their sense of smell. Although the article did say that fire is lethal to vampires but since vampires are fast as lightening, much stronger than humans and probably not very willing to jump into a fire if you ask them nicely, it wouldn't be an easy task to fight of a vampire to say the least. So that was reassuring.

But apparently werewolves, who are the mortal enemies of vampires, are able to kill vampires. So that is what Jacob had meant when he said that they were working on it and that it would be dangerous for me. He could have just said so earlier. Not that it matters, I'm not going to back out of this, it's too important for my career and I want to help those victims find whoever did it and expose him or her or them. I didn't even know how many killers were out there and I knew it wasn't smart of me to go in there unarmed but I had to find out what was going on sooner or later. Perhaps I could ask the help of the Cullens with that as well, they could be my personal bodyguards or something. But they would probably, just like Jacob had, tell me that it was too dangerous and forbid me to go. This sucks!

I was mindlessly scrolling through the article one more time before returning to my notes. I decided to add one little sidebar to it all and then call it a night.

_Vampires can be killed by werewolves and fire_

Just in case I would ever have need for that.

At that moment, there was a tap on my window and it startled me. I jumped out of my chair stared into the darkness for an immeasurable moment, not really looking or seeing anything. Then I noticed a pair of golden eyes and I realized that I had asked Edward to come over. It had been stupid of me to assume that he would use the front door because that would wake up Charlie for sure. So as soon as my heart started beating at a normal pace again I walked to the window to open it.

"I'm sorry I startled you," Edward said softly as he swung himself into my room.

I realized I had never shown him my room and I felt a little uncomfortable. It wasn't exactly the room of a professional young woman; it was still the same room I had had in high school, girly colors and all.

"Nice room," he commented as he noticed my not so subtle panicked look around my room.

"Right, I haven't changed anything here since high school, sorry," I muttered ashamed.

"It's alright love," he said. "I like your room. And even if I didn't, it's not like I'm here to admire your room now am I," he said sweetly before kissing my lips.

"Hmmm, guess not," I murmured in between kisses.

"Thought so," he said smugly as he picked me up and carried me over to my bed. He laid down on top of me, careful not to crush me with his weight and started placing kisses all along my throat and jaw, working his way up to my mouth. I let out a soft moan in pleasure and I could feel Edward smiling smugly against my chin.

"You like that huh?" he asked smugly.

I didn't say anything I just nodded, that was enough encouragement for him to continue.

I lost track of time kissing Edward and just being close to him and when I glanced over to the clock I noticed it was already past midnight.

"It's late love," Edward murmured, following my glance.

"Yes, I should get ready for bed," I agreed. "Give me one minute alright?" I said tentatively. I didn't really want to leave him alone in my room, it felt so strange but I had to brush my teeth and put on my pajamas, which on its own was already bad enough because I didn't own any 'mature' nightwear, I just had a big t-shirt and pajama pants. Ah well, it'll have to do. Edward didn't like me for my looks anyways.

I quickly went into the bathroom and changed my clothes. I brushed my teeth as fast as I could without hurting myself or breaking my toothbrush and all but sprinted back into my room.

When I entered my room I saw Edward sitting behind my laptop and I realized that I had left my notes for my story open on the screen. I couldn't believe how stupid I had been! I wanted to smack myself in the head for what I'd done because for anyone who would read that it may look like I think the Cullens are suspects and I don't think that at all! Not anymore.

"Edward?" I asked cautiously, afraid of his reaction.

He didn't move, he just sat there staring at my screen.

"Edward, it's not what it looks like," I tried softly.

He slowly turned around and his eyes were pitch black, darker than I had ever seen them before. His lips were pressed into a hard line and he was glaring at me. It was the first time he actually looked like a real vampire and I backed away a few steps, afraid.

"It's not?" he asked harshly. "So you were not using me for your story?"

"No!" I said immediately.

"Right, why should I believe you?" Edward asked, still not softening up.

"I swear," I tried.

"I don't care. I can't believe how stupid I had been to trust you!" he spat at me. "I knew you were working on the disappearances in Forks and I knew that they started only a few weeks ago, around the same time we arrived. But I never thought that you were only _pretending_ to like me and my family so you could get information for your story! I told you my deepest secret and you want to share it with the world! I told you we don't kill humans Bella! So how can you believe that we're behind those killings?" He was whispering but it felt like he was yelling at me.

"Edward, I don't think you're behind those killings!" I tried again.

"Then why would you write all those things there? Did your friend tell you we were behind this?" he continued while glaring at me.

"No! Jacob has nothing to do with this!" I said.

"Then why is he at the top of your notes?"

I knew it all looked really bad and I had no idea how I was going to explain all of this in a way that would make him trust me again. I couldn't believe how stupid I had been. I shouldn't have written all of that about the Cullens in there because they weren't part of my story anymore.

"So now what Bella? Do you want to publish our secret? Nobody will believe you, you know? Vampires are real? Really? You think they'd buy that? Especially from a first time investigative reporter. You have no credibility whatsoever!" he spat at me.

I couldn't control the tears that were starting to stream down my face.

"I didn't mean it like that," I said softly. "I don't think you're responsible. I just needed an explanation," I said weakly.

"So you used me and my family for that! You never really liked us! I can't believe I fell for you! I thought you were different from the rest, but you're just the same, only looking out for yourself! That's also why you reacted so strangely when you found out I could read minds, you thought your cover was blown! It all makes sense now!" he continued to rage.

"No! That's not at all what happened!" I wanted to yell but I didn't want to wake up Charlie so I whispered it desperately.

"I don't believe you Bella. After tonight, I don't ever want to see you again and I'm sure my family will feel the same way!" Edward said determinedly and my heart broke. Soft sobs were escaping me now and I couldn't stop it.

"I'm so sorry Edward, this really isn't what I wanted," I said sadly.

"No I know, because now you can't get any more information out of us," he seethed.

"That's not the reason," I tried but I knew it was futile.

"Right, well save it Bella. If you must know, my family and I moved here because we are very fond of Forks, we've lived here before and it's a nice town, the weather is perfect for us and the people are genuinely nice most of the time," he said bitterly. "And when we heard that the people in Forks were being terrorized by vampires we moved back here to make it stop and to chase the vampires away. But we didn't want to cause a fight either because killing vampires to protect humans in our society isn't accepted; there are high penalties to pay if you do so. That is why we moved here almost at the same time the disappearances and the killings started and that is also why they haven't stopped yet. Not that it matters, it doesn't change the fact that you used us! Goodbye Bella," he said curtly.

I couldn't believe what had just happened but before I could comment on his explanation he was out my window and he disappeared into the darkness. I know it was no use for me to follow him; he was much faster than I was and even if I did find him, he would just yell at me more. His family would hate me now as well. If I hadn't left my stupid notes out in the open this all wouldn't have happened and then I could have just told them everything tomorrow and ask for their help. But now I was on my own.

I stood in front of my window, staring outside for an immeasurable moment. I didn't know what to do. I loved Edward and I didn't want to lose him but I had no idea how I could make it up to him or explain it to him. Explain that I was interested in them because of my story but that that wasn't the only reason. I wanted to tell him that as soon as I'd gotten to know them the story didn't matter anymore; I just wanted to know more about them because I liked them and I loved hanging out with them. But he wouldn't believe me anyway. I had messed everything up. The greatest guy I had ever met never wanted to see me again and it was all my own stupid fault. I shouldn't have come back.

Tears rolled down my face and sobs escaped my body constantly. I couldn't sleep and I was just laying in my bed, staring at the ceiling, all but kicking myself for what I had done.

I stared at the phone on my nightstand for a moment and deliberated about calling Alice but I knew that she probably wouldn't pick up either. I had betrayed her trust too and she would not want to be my friend anymore. I was pretty sure of that.

It was five in the morning when I finally made a decision that would help me calm down and get back to my life the way it had been before. I was going into the woods tomorrow to find out what was going on with those disappearances, see for myself what was happening. I would of course keep my distance, even though the most amazing guy I had ever met had dumped me, I wasn't suicidal. I just wanted to get my story and get out of this town as soon as I could. I would move back to my apartment in Seattle and focus completely on my work, not think about Edward for another moment.

But his words kept running through my head as if to remind me constantly of how stupid I had been. In particular one sentence had caught my recent interest. "You have no credibility whatsoever!" He was right of course, if my first piece of investigative reporting would be on vampires Adam and the rest of the world would laugh at me and think I was crazy. I couldn't write this piece this way. There was also no way that I could _not_ write this piece, I had assured Adam that there was a story and that I was going to write it. It wouldn't make sense for me to all of a sudden back out and say that I was wrong but that there is no story at all. That would blow all my chances of ever getting another chance at investigative reporting.

No! Tomorrow I was going to go into the woods, figure out what exactly was going on and then once I had everything I needed I would spin my story in a certain way that would make it believable, without any mention of mythical creatures like vampires or werewolves or elves or trolls or whatever else was out there. There was just no other way it could work out and I was very eager to get out of Forks again.

Around seven in the morning I finally fell asleep, still very restless but at least resolved to do what I had to do to be able to get out of here as soon as I could and continue to live my life the way I had always done. I was going to go back to living a dull and uninteresting life.

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A/N**__: Please don't be mad! *insert puppy dog eyes* I'll be back tomorrow :) _

_Xxx_

_Thari_


	13. Into the Forest

_**A/N**__: Hi there, I'm glad so far nobody really hates me (A) Thanks for the reviews, __**twilight642531**__, __**Nikie Bleeker**__, __**Yeye85**__ and __**Shirley**__, you guys are awesome! :D _

_To everyone who's mad at me: SORRY! :D But really, what kind of story would it be if everything went just fine and it was all fluff all the time? :D _

_Again a short A/N cause I have baseball practice today :D So I have to hurry :P Also explains the early update ;) But I'm sure you guys didn't want to wait any longer anyways ;) Can't wait to hear your thoughts on the chapter :) Enjoy!_

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Into the Forest**

The next morning I was tired when I woke up around eleven. I vaguely remembered what had happened last night but my brain was working very hard to suppress the memory. I had more important things on my mind, it kept telling me. I knew it wasn't exactly true. Nothing seemed more important than Edward and the rest of the Cullens knowing that I hadn't used them and that I truly did love them. But it was going to have to wait regardless.

Even though I was scared for what I was about to do, there was no way out now. I had made my decision and I was going to stick to it. But there was no harm in gathering some more information first. So I decided to go by Jacob to see if he was home and was willing to provide me with some information on vampires in general.

I should have known that Jacob wouldn't be too excited about my line of questioning but I was still caught completely off guard when he started yelling at me after I had told him about the Cullens. Leaving out the fact that I had fallen in love with one of them.

"You what? Bella! How can you hang out with _them_? They're dangerous!" he yelled.

"I'm sure they'd say the same thing about you, mortal enemies and everything," I replied calmly, quite proud of my remark.

"Don't get all smug with me!" Jacob growled. It seemed my new talent was pissing people off whom I cared about. "I haven't killed anyone! None of us have! We don't hurt humans!"

"The Cullens don't hurt humans either!" I shot back.

"Just because they _try_, doesn't mean it's safe for you to hang around them," he said, a little more calmly now.

"Well, it seems that all of you agree on one thing at least," I replied bitterly. "You don't have to worry about that, they don't want to see me anymore anyway. That's not what I came here to talk to you about," I quickly changed the subject.

"What is it then?" he questioned suspiciously.

"Well, aren't you just a big bundle of happiness, almost like your exploding because you're so happy to see me," I said sarcastically.

"I'm sorry Bells, I have a lot on my mind right now but you're right, I am happy to see you. As long as you haven't come here to tell me you're becoming a vampire," he added smilingly.

"I didn't, I'm sure the vampire world can do without a klutz like me," I attempted to joke but there was still a hint of bitterness in my voice.

"I would pay to see a clumsy vampire." Jacob was laughing now.

"Anyway," I said trying to get away from this rather painful subject. Thinking of me as a vampire was too much of a reminder that the Cullens didn't want me to be one of them, that Edward didn't want me to be one of them.

"Right, sorry," Jacob muttered sheepishly.

"It's alright; I just wanted to know something. What do you know about the disappearances? The newspapers said that the victims they were able to recover were completely drained of blood and now that I know vampires are real and everything I think that vampires are behind it but that's as far as I got. I have no idea how many there are or if there have been any more victims lately and I was hoping you could help me with that?" I explained matter-of-factly, wisely leaving out the fact that I was intending to go into the forest later today and find out myself anyways if he wasn't going to give me the answers I needed. I just asked him because I thought it would be nice to know what I was up against.

"Bella! It's dangerous!" he exclaimed horrified.

"I know, I'm not stupid Jacob!" I shot back at him. "Can you help me or not?" I challenged.

"Fine, I'll tell you what I know," he offered.

"You're the best!" I exclaimed while hugging my best friend tightly.

"I know," he replied with a smile as soon as I'd released him.

"We have actually gone into the woods yesterday to check out the situation again and normally we come up blank, no sign of the vampires anywhere but yesterday we were lucky. We caught their scent early into the search and we followed the trail to an open place not very far from here. There were three of them, two males and one female. They were disposing of a body of their latest victim and we organized an attack. They fought back forcefully but we had them cornered. I don't know how it happened but for some reason the female escaped and the moment she fled we lost our focus for a split second and the males escaped too. We were so close!" Jacob explained frustrated.

"So there are three," I said thoughtfully.

"That we know of, yes. The scents were also the only scents we had found in the woods earlier so I do believe there are only three of them. It shouldn't be too hard for us to catch them and finish them off once and for all," he said confidently.

"Weren't you just telling me how dangerous it was?" I questioned.

"Dangerous _for you_, for us it's our destiny, we transform so we can protect the people from vampires," Jacob replied with a hint of smugness in his voice.

"Fine," I gave in. "Are there any more victims that you know of?"

"Well, we do warn everyone on the reservation to stay out of the woods but not everyone listens to us unfortunately. Just now I heard about a girl who hasn't come home for lunch the way she always does. Some of us are already out there searching and I should really be joining them," Jacob said.

"Alright, I'll leave you then. Please be careful!" I told him quickly before pecking him on the cheek and walking towards my car.

"I'm always careful, you be careful too Bells, don't do anything stupid!" he warned.

"I never do," I yelled back.

Jacob was suddenly next to me, staring at me intently. "Yeah right, I know you! I mean it Bells, don't do anything stupid! Please?" he said seriously.

"Nothing stupid. Got it. Now go! That girl needs you!" I said quickly.

"Right, bye Bells, I'll talk to you later alright?" he yelled over his shoulder as he was already heading for the woods.

"Sure, sure," I yelled back. "Bye!"

Now that I knew Jacob and the pack were out there looking for the vampires as well I felt a little safer going into the woods. I knew that if I would get in trouble they would be close and I'd be safe in no time. So I was completely calm as I parked my car away from the reservation and close to an entrance into the woods. There was a hiking trail and I decided to follow that one first. I wasn't really planning on getting lost in the forest so it would be smart to remember where I was going and the trail would help me with that.

I walked for an hour without running into anything but branches. My arms were covered in scratches because every time I wasn't fully paying attention I managed to either hit a tree or a shrub, brilliant as I was.

I was about to turn around and call it a day when I heard a scream coming from somewhere to my right. I decided to leave the trail and find out where that scream had come from. I stopped a few meters away from an open place and I realized this must have been the place Jacob had meant earlier. I saw a girl with her back against the tree and a woman with hair red like fire walking towards her. The woman with the red hair was clearly a vampire, her skin was pale and there was something menacing about the way she walked, like a predator stalking its prey, which was exactly what was going on. I looked around for the two men that Jacob had said were also part of the group but they were nowhere to be found.

I heard a loud growl coming not far from where I was standing and it sounded like an animal was in pain. I hoped that it wasn't one of the wolves but faired for the worst anyways.

The red haired woman had stopped and turned her attention to the sound as well. She seemed smug for some reason and it made me flinch. I really hoped they hadn't hurt one of the pack. What if it was Jacob? I told him he shouldn't have gone into the woods!

"What do we have here?" I heard a soft, low voice from behind me. The first thing that came to my mind was that the voice was beautiful and I was curious to see who belonged to the voice.

I turned around and I saw a pale man with bright red eyes staring at me curiously.

"You know it's not polite to spy on people right?" he continued sweetly.

I was completely frozen in fear. This was not good!

"What's your name?" he purred.

"Bella," I managed to choke out.

"Well, Bella, I'm James, nice to meet you."

"Hi," I muttered back, unwilling to show how scared I truly was.

"What are you doing in this part of the woods?" he asked, still sounding sickly sweet.

"Hiking," I said, trying to sound convincing.

"Hiking hmm? Didn't they warn you to stay out of the forest?" he questioned.

"Yes," I replied.

"They were right, you shouldn't be in this forest, it isn't safe," he continued to purr.

"Why not?" I asked, playing dumb.

"Because I'm here," he said menacingly while taking a few steps in my direction.

"Oh," I said.

"Do you know what I am?" he asked while continuing to approach me.

"Vampire," I replied simply.

"That's right. Ah, I can smell it now. The wolves told you!" he said knowingly. "Well, you don't have to think that they'll come to your rescue. Nobody can save you now Bella," he said confidently.

"Why is that?" I asked.

"Because the wolves have gone back to where they came from after Laurent and I, you'll meet him later, got our hands on some of them and cracked them real good," he explained calmly.

My hands involuntarily moved to my mouth and my eyes widened in shock. So the growls I'd heard had been from some of the members of the pack. But the question was, who?

"Why are you doing this?" I asked boldly.

"Because we need to feed," James said while shrugging.

"But you've been here for quite a while, don't you normally travel?" I asked, remembering something I'd read about vampires being nomads.

"Normally, yes, but because the wolves are here, it's much more fun and exciting to hunt in this area don't you think? Makes it more of a sport to catch our prey," he explained as if it was the most logical thing in the world.

"Ah," I replied. It was strange but even though I knew I was in grave danger and I had no idea how I was going to get myself out of this, I still wanted to know as much as I could about this vampire so I could possibly use it for my article later. If there even was a later for me.

"I think that's enough chatting for now, let's take you to the rest. Even though you smell absolutely mouthwatering and I'm starving I think it would be fun to keep you around for a little bit, since you're so close to the wolves. It will make the game that much more interesting," James said sweetly.

"They'll come looking for me," I said halfheartedly.

"That's the plan Bella," he replied calmly. "It's much more fun when we have a hostage they _really_ care about. Then it's not just that they're fulfilling their duty of protecting the humans but they actually want to bring you back safe and sound," he said sounding sure of himself.

"What makes you think they won't hunt you down and kill you all for doing that?" I questioned bluntly.

"Because if they could've done that, they would have by now. It makes no sense for them to keep us around longer than necessary because that means more humans are in danger. So the only explanation as to why they haven't killed us yet is simply because they can't. But it would be nice to see what this extra piece of motivation does to them," he replied with a smirk.

I didn't know what to say to that, I knew that he was probably right.

"Out of smart remarks?" he asked with a smile.

"For now," I replied boldly.

James let out a harsh laugh. "You're a feisty human, I like that. Too bad we're going to have to kill you eventually," he said while shrugging.

"You'll be sorry," I promised him, hoping and praying that it would be true.

"That's enough, let's go!" James ordered as he grabbed my wrist and guided me towards the open place.

"Victoria, love, look what I found," James said proudly. "It's one of the wolves' toys."

"I'm not their toy!" I objected.

The woman, apparently named Victoria, and James laughed.

"I already saved you a little snack," the woman said while motioning towards the girl who was still pressed up against the tree, looking scared.

"This one is not a snack, not yet at least. We can use her to lure out the dogs," he explained to his female partner. "It'll be so much fun," he continued enthusiastically.

He had now let go of my wrist and walked towards the woman to kiss her passionately. It was like watching two animals make out. A thought quickly popped into my mind, they were preoccupied right now, maybe I could make a run for it.

I looked at the girl at the tree and she was staring at the two with a disgusted expression. I waved to try and get her attention and when she looked at me I mouthed "run" at her while motioning for the trees. She knew what I meant and she started running. I didn't have time to see where she was going because I knew I had to do the same if I wanted to get free. I knew vampires could travel at least at the speed of sound but I had good hopes that at least one of us could get out alive if they were just preoccupied enough.

"That was a _really_ stupid move!" James' voice came from behind me. I just kept running, knowing it was futile.

Suddenly Victoria was in front of me and she smiled at me, almost looking sincere. I stopped, knowing I had lost and thinking that the girl had probably made it back to the reservation. If so then she would be able to warn someone and I would be rescued.

"You stupid girl! Now we have to move again!" Victoria growled at me. "I was beginning to like that open place, almost felt like home," she said to James.

"Sorry darling," he said sweetly. "Didn't know this one was going to be this difficult, not even having the decency to give us a moment of uninterrupted privacy," he said sounding genuinely upset.

"Where is Laurent?" Victoria asked all of a sudden.

"Right here," an unfamiliar voice came from behind a tree.

"What took you so long?" she asked the second man who was now quickly closing the distance between him and Victoria.

"I had to avoid some of the dogs," he said with a shrug.

"Did you lose them?" James interrupted.

"Yes, they were very eager to go back and check on the ones we hurt," the man named Laurent said smugly. "What's this?" he asked while looking at me.

"This is our new friend Bella," James said sweetly. "She's the dogs' pet." I couldn't even be bothered to comment on that anymore. "And she's going to stay with us for a little while, that is if she can promise to behave and not run away again," he said while now addressing me.

"Fine," I grumbled, knowing that if I would refuse now, they would just kill me and I would have no chance of survival whatsoever.

"Good girl," he purred. "But because of Bella here, we have to get moving to a different location because she helped our snack escape and I'm sure that girl is now back with those wolves, telling them that we have her," he continued to Laurent.

"Ah, then it's best if we move quickly," Laurent agreed with James.

James grabbed me roughly and swung me onto his back before starting to run. "Hold on!" he yelled at me before letting out a harsh laughter.

The wind was painful on my cheeks and in my eyes and I was afraid that I was going to die at this very moment. James was running with incredible speed and I wouldn't survive it if he would crash into anything right now.

But he didn't and we kept moving deeper into the forest, it became darker and darker around me and I had no idea where I was anymore, nor did I have much hope of making it out of there alive.

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A/N**__: Bella really does have a knack for getting herself in trouble now doesn't she ;) Let's see her get out of this one ;) I'll be back with chapter 14 tomorrow :) _

_Xxx_

_Thari_


	14. Trouble Far Away From Paradise

_**A/N**__: Sorry about the cliffhanger! :D Hope you're not all too mad at me *throws in a pair of puppy dog eyes* Thanks so much for reviewing __**Kristin Stewart Is My Life**__, __**Shirley**__ and __**Yeye85**__, you guys are awesome! :D _

_To __**Shirley**__: I was already kind of running late for my practice ;) So yeah I was really in a hurry ;) I'm sorry I couldn't update sooner :P Job was a pain today… _

_To __**Yeye85**__: Your review made me laugh :D I always imagine the "dun dun dun" whenever something gets exciting :P _

_To everyone: here's chapter 14, hope you enjoy it :) Let me know what you think! :)_

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Trouble Far Away From Paradise**

"I knew those dogs were stupid but I didn't think it would take them _this_ long to come for someone they love," Victoria growled in displeasure. "We've been sitting here, doing nothing for a day now!"

The three of them had moved me to a dark part deep in the forest. I didn't know the forest very well but I could tell this was a part where very few humans ever came.

"Patience baby, they'll show up," James purred sweetly.

"I think they don't care about this girl at all," Victoria replied.

"I'm sure they do, their stink is still on her, she has to have been close to them pretty often," James continued to contradict her.

"I'm hungry!" Victoria whined.

"Why don't you go looking for a snack then? I'll stay here with her," James offered.

"Can't we just eat her?" she continued, shooting me a menacing glare.

"Where is the fun in that? Now go," James ordered.

He clearly was the leader of the group because she obeyed and ran away quickly.

"I hope they never come," I said angrily.

"Now why would you go and say a thing like that?" James questioned seeming genuinely surprised.

"Because that means you lose, there's no game in it for you then, no challenge. I'll be just another girl you killed," I explained bravely.

"And what makes you think I'd care about that?"

"Isn't that what you're doing this all for? The sport? Maybe they have figured it out and they'll leave you alone long enough for you to get bored and look for some other village to terrorize," I replied.

"You're a smart girl now aren't you? But that won't happen I'm afraid. The wolves are too uptight about their precious little humans to ever let us kill them without taking action. For someone who seems to know them as well as you do, you really don't have a clue!" he said smugly.

"You'll never win! They'll get you eventually," I shot back at him.

"I don't understand you. You're alone, deep in the forest with a bunch of vampires and instead of being scared to death, you keep insisting on insulting and challenging me. Why is that?"

"I know you won't get away with this. If I would be scared of you it would make it all the more fun for you, so I'm just going to sit here and wait for whatever it is that's going to happen," I said confidently.

"I don't believe you, you have to be scared right now; you're a human."

The truth was that I wasn't scared. I just kept thinking of Edward and that he didn't want me anymore. He hated me. If I would die it wouldn't be as much of a disaster as living without him. I had hurt the Cullens and that was more punishment for me than anything these vampires were ever capable of.

"I've had worse," I said simply.

"Ah, so that's it. You have a broken heart. Tell me about it," he purred.

"Why would I?" I challenged.

"Because I say so," James said, clearly irritated by my attitude.

"No thank you," I replied again. I had no reason to give him what he wanted, if he was going to kill me this soon he would have done so by now.

"You seem to be under the impression that killing you is the only thing I could do to you but in fact I have way worse things I could do, you would be begging me to kill you after I'd be through with you. So it would really be a wise decision for you to actually start showing me some respect!" he threatened.

"Fine, I had a boyfriend, I made a mistake, I lost my boyfriend," I said curtly.

"Ah, tell me about this boyfriend of yours then," he said while leaning in close.

"Nothing to tell," I shrugged, hoping he'd let it go.

We heard a loud scream and it sounded like it came from Victoria. James looked up in panic.

"Looks like I'm going to have to leave you alone for a while," he said. "Don't do anything foolish! I will find you if you run away!" he threatened.

"I hope they killed her!" I shot at James confidently.

He growled and quickly closed the distance between us. "If they did, it'll be the end of you!" he threatened.

He and Laurent, who had just been standing a few feet away from us without speaking the entire time, ran away towards the sound and I was left completely alone with no idea where I was. Then I remembered I had my phone in my pocket and I quickly took it out.

I knew it was a long shot but I dialed Edward's number nonetheless.

"Hello?" he answered quickly.

"Edward! It's me!" I exclaimed in relief.

"Bella, I don't really feel like talking to you right now," he said bitterly before hanging up the phone.

I felt lost. That was it. My only shot at getting rescued had failed. I knew he wouldn't pick up the phone if I tried calling him again. So I put my phone back in my pocket and closed my eyes.

I started thinking about Edward and how wonderful he had been. I thought about our first kiss and about the short time we had spent together. I had been blessed with him as my boyfriend and it had only been a matter of time before he would leave me.

I thought about the way he had looked when he had found the notes. Now that I was remembering it I saw something more than just anger. I saw pain in his eyes. I had hurt him!

I thought dying wouldn't be such a big deal because he had left me. But he hadn't left me just because he was angry with me, I had hurt the one guy I would ever love.

After that revelation, I was resolved to stay alive so that I could explain to him what had happened. I wanted to take away his pain. As soon as I realized that, I also realized that making sure Edward was happy and that there was no pain in his life was going to be my goal for the rest of my life. Even if it meant staying away from him, I would do that if that would make him happy. But first he had to know the truth! I was going to explain it all to him as soon as I got out of this mess I had gotten myself into.

I knew Edward wasn't willing to listen to me but maybe Alice was. She must have known my friendship with her was real right? I didn't have time to think it through or to back out. It was going to be now or never because I had no idea when James, Laurent and Victoria were coming back. I needed to fix this now.

"Alice?" I said as soon as I heard her answer the phone.

"Bella! Why are you calling me?" she said, sounding surprised rather than angry.

"I don't have time to explain! Please hear me out! It was all a big misunderstanding! I didn't use you all for my story! You have to believe me," I rushed out. "I'll explain it all later but right now I _really_ need your help, I'm in big trouble and I can't get out!"

"What's wrong?" she asked, sounding worried.

But before I could reply I heard another voice on the phone.

"Bella? What's going on?" I heard Edward's worried voice and I started to cry.

"Edward, I'm so sorry!" I started blubbering.

"It's alright, you can tell me later. Are you alright? Where are you?" he asked.

"I don't know where I am, I'm somewhere in the forest. I wanted to do some research for my story so I went into the woods but the vampires caught me and I can't get away," I explained quickly.

"That was a really stupid move!" James growled menacingly.

Before I knew it he took away my phone and crushed it in his hand. I knew it was too late now. Edward would never find me on time. James was going to kill me.

"Who were you calling? The local police? They can't do anything to help you!" he threatened. "No wait, you said vampires. So who was that on the phone? It wasn't one of the wolves because we were fighting them off. Who else knows about our existence?"

"Nobody?" I tried unconvincingly.

"I can also just torture it out of you, trust me it wouldn't be a problem for me," he said while slowly walking towards me.

"I just called a friend," I said quickly, getting more scared by the minute.

"Just a friend? And what kind of friend would believe you when you talk about vampires?" he questioned.

"Uuhm," I stuttered.

"What aren't you telling me?" he growled.

"Where are Victoria and Laurent?" I asked, pathetically trying to change the subject.

"They are trying to lure away the wolves," he said curtly.

"But what if one of them finds you here alone with me? You'd be in big trouble!" I said confidently.

"You are right; maybe we should just move you again. Or I could just finish you off right here and now, they'd be too busy mourning over you to even think about coming after me," he said seriously.

"They wouldn't, killing you would be the first thing on their minds! They would never stop!" I replied.

"Maybe you're right," he said.

"Besides, they wouldn't be the only ones," I warned him, knowing it wasn't true but hoping to buy some time anyways.

Maybe the Cullens still cared about me a little bit and they would try to find me, all I could do to help was keep James talking and make sure he wouldn't move me to a different location again or kill me.

"What are you talking about? That friend of yours?" he questioned, sounding interested.

"Yes, my friend knows about you and he'll kill you if you hurt me," I promised weakly.

"And who, might I ask, is that friend of yours? What makes you think that he is going to be able to kill me?" He raised one eyebrow at me suspiciously.

"There are more of them than there are of you," I said cryptically.

"So not just one friend? Wait a minute! Are you telling me that those vampires that I noticed around here earlier are actually _friends_ of yours?" He sounded disgusted. "This might turn out to be very interesting after all!"

"They'll kill you and your companions!" I said.

"I don't think they will. You see, killing another vampire over a human is illegal in our world," he said calmly.

"But killing a vampire because that vampire is invading on another vampires territory isn't," I bluffed. "And that's what it would look like. It looks like you're stealing food from these vampires and as revenge, they would have killed you." I was proud of my threats, though I had no idea if the Cullens were even going to show up or if any of the things I said were actually true.

"Hmm you're right about that," James said thoughtfully. "Well, if they are going to kill me anyways, there really is no reason for me not to enjoy the mouthwatering taste of your blood now is there," he said, still calm.

"What?" This was not going in the right direction.

James came closer and closer to me, walking slowly like Victoria had done with that other girl earlier, stalking his prey. I had no hope of surviving this. He was going to kill me and there was nothing anybody could do to stop him.

"Please don't," I was begging now, acknowledging that this was probably the only chance I had left.

"Too late little girl," James spoke softly.

That moment Laurent and Victoria joined us and they looked scared.

"We couldn't shake them this time! They were all there, even the ones we hurt!" Laurent said panicky.

"We have to move quickly!" Victoria screamed at James.

"I am sick of running from these wolves!" James growled. His eyes were pitch black. "We take care of the wolves once and for all and then we take care of this girl!" he spoke menacingly.

That's when a circle of huge wolves surrounded us. I looked around and I noticed one of the wolves I had seen before, Jacob. I let out a sigh in relief when I saw him but then I realized what was going to happen now. The three vampires were going to attack the wolves that were here. There weren't many wolves, I counted 8 wolves, and I had no idea if that was enough to beat three vampires. They hadn't been able to do it before, why would they be able to do it now.

Jacob made the first move and he sprinted towards me. James noticed where he was going and easily intercepted Jacob. He shoved him into a tree. I heard a whine and I wanted to run over to Jacob to see if he was okay but I couldn't move. I was frozen in fear.

A battle erupted between the wolves and the vampires. The wolves were coordinated, three of them attacked James, three attacked Laurent and two attacked Victoria. Jacob along with a big black wolf, which I assumed was Sam, and another wolf I couldn't recognize attacked James. They lured him away from me. Their jaws were snapping at the vampire but for some reason he didn't seem frightened. He avoided their attacks easily and it seemed to only wear out the wolves. I was praying that he wouldn't hurt any of them. I was scared because I thought vampires were the strongest, most dangerous creatures alive.

I saw Laurent and Victoria perform the same kind of dance with the rest of the wolves, avoiding their bites easily.

I looked around all the wolves and I wondered which ones were Seth and Leah. I hoped with all my heart they wouldn't get hurt either. Seth shouldn't even be involved in all of this, he was still so young! Even though he had grown a lot and didn't look any younger than the rest of the wolves, they still had two years on him. He was only a kid! I tried to make out all the wolves; I knew who they were supposed to be. Jacob had explained to me which boys from the reservation were wolves. There were Sam, Jacob, Seth and Leah of course. But also Jared, Paul, Embry and Quinn were part of the pack. I knew all the guys well, they were all my friends. And now they were here, fighting for my life.

The fight raged on without any change. The wolves continued to attack and the vampires kept avoiding every move they made. It was mostly just a blur but for some reason I had no trouble following it all. I was mostly focused on James and the wolves that were attacking him. Mostly because I thought James was the most dangerous of the vampires, since he was the leader of the group, and because Jacob was the one fighting him.

At a certain point James landed on Jacob's back and he revealed his teeth close to Jacob's neck. I wasn't certain but I thought a bite of a vampire was lethal to a werewolf. I gasped loudly.

"No!" I screamed.

Nobody paid any attention to me. I was invisible.

But right before James could sink his teeth into Jacob's neck; Sam pounded on James and shoved him off of Jacob.

I let out a sigh in relief.

Of course his actions shifted James' focus from Jacob to Sam and he started full on attacking Sam now. He hardly noticed the attempts of the other two wolves as he tried to get his hands around the black wolf. Momentarily he succeeded and I gasped again. I'm sure with his strength he would be able crack at least a few bones if not do more damage. But Jacob and the other wolf caught his arms between their teeth before he could do anything and they tore at him, hard.

James kicked both wolves away but they had such a good grip on the arms that the arms tore off. James screamed in agony and started retreating. I looked over to the other two vampires and it seemed that they were on the winning side of the battle. Sam, Jacob and the other wolf noticed too and they left James alone to help their pack. Victoria had one of the two wolves already wrapped around a tree and the other one was not far from joining. So Jacob and the wolf I didn't recognize helped attack Victoria and Sam helped the wolves who were fighting Laurent.

It was strange that even though the vampires were outnumbered by 5 they still seemed to be winning. I looked over at James again and I saw that he was already reassembling his arms. It was a gruesome sight and I was sure I wasn't going to get that image out of my mind any time soon. He noticed my stare and grinned menacingly at me before running towards me.

I knew the wolves were preoccupied right now and if he would have any easy shot at me, this would be it. He grabbed me by the arms easily to hold me still.

"This will only hurt for a little bit," he whispered sweetly.

I let out a scream before he could go further and I saw Jacob pound on the vampire. Luckily for me he let go of me before he flew across the space. The impact resulting from the force Jacob had put into the blow would have seriously injured me or worse had James held on to me.

The dance started anew again. It was horrible that I wasn't able to do anything more. I wished that James would just kill me already so this could all be over. He could leave this place and never come back. The wolves and the rest of the humans in this area would be able to live in peace again. I knew it was selfish of me to want them out of this area, seeing as how they would obviously move on to terrorize humans in a different area but I was far from caring at this point. My friends were fighting for my life here. They were in danger because of me. Even though the wolves seemed to be able to heal quickly or something, every time they would attack one of the three vampires, they would end up hurt again. The wolves were clearly losing this battle.

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A/N**__: Sorry about the cliffhanger… again :D But I promise it'll be the last one :) Tomorrow I'll be back with chapter 15 :) And I'm pretty sure it'll be an early update :) No promises though! :D _

_Xxx_

_Thari_


	15. Savior

_**A/N**__: Hi there, early update cause I'm working and I don't know when else I'd have time to upload :) Thanks to all the reviewers! __**Kristen Stewart Is My Life**__, __**Shirley**__ and __**Yeye85**__! _

_To __**Kristin Stewart Is My Life**__: You're always so quick with reviewing :O It's impressive ;) Thanks for reviewing!_

_To __**Shirley**__: I'm glad you weren't mad at me for being late with updating ;) I had heard about Blue Monday on the radio but I think it's a weird concept :P Maybe it only applies to people who are older and actually have bills to pay and stuff like that because it felt like just another Monday to me ;) I'm glad you said I remind you of you with the cliffhangers :P But I do promise that was the last one :) You'll like all the chapters that are to come I'm sure :)_

_To __**Yeye85**__: I do promise it was the last cliffhanger ;) Only happy endings from now on ;) _

_To everyone: The story is almost coming to an end already, it's strange how time flies :O But after today's chapter there will be only one more real chapter and a relatively short Epilogue (short for my standards at least :P) and then it's really finished :) But I've edited all the coming chapters today so at least there will be only daily updates in this story :D That is if fanfic works with me… :P _

_Here's chapter 15 :) Hope you enjoy and as always I'd love to hear what you thought! :)_

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Savior**

This is not going well! The battle had been going on for what felt like hours now and the wolves were still losing. I had frequent visions of all of them getting completely slaughtered by the vampires and I couldn't stand it. I was on the verge of crying the entire time, the only thing that stopped me was that I wouldn't be able to see what was going on if tears were streaming down my face.

I felt useless. I was just a stupid little human. What a fool I had been for thinking I could go into the woods without anything happening to me!

I heard a loud bang and the ground shook. I looked over to my left and there was Jacob, lying on the floor. I looked at him in shock and wanted to run over to him to see if he was alright. I got ready to stand up but Jacob was looking at me with a strange expression – or so it seemed since he was a wolf and I had no idea what a normal expression was for a wolf. Jacob slightly shook his head and I thought I saw him wink. I looked at him in confusion but before I could get any answers his gaze shifted and I followed it. James came flying in his direction very quickly and I was afraid this was going to be the end of Jacob but just as quickly as James had attacked Jacob James was flying through the air in opposite direction. Jacob was now also standing, seemingly without any injuries despite the huge blow he got. I was confused. Did Jake have any special mental powers I didn't know about?

That's when I saw her. My favorite little pixie!

"Alice!" I exclaimed in relief. She had found me.

I looked around the space to see not only Alice was there but all the Cullens were, even Edward. I grinned at all of them. I was sure 7 vampires and 8 wolves were able to take care of 3 vampires, right? Preferably without getting hurt themselves.

Now the dance started to look more positive. This time James was fighting off 3 wolves and he tried to fight off Emmett and Jasper on top of that. The two wolves that had been fighting Victoria for so long were now joined by Rosalie and Esme. And Laurent was getting harassed not only by the three wolves but also by Carlisle and Alice.

I knew I was missing someone in this fight so I looked around to find Edward. I'm sure he was still mad at me and had just left.

"I'm right here, love," he said sweetly from behind me.

I turned around quickly and he looked at me with a crooked smile I loved so much.

"I'm sure everyone's got it covered here, what do you say I take you out of here? I'm sure Charlie is worried sick about you by now," he offered while extending his hand towards me to help me up.

I gladly took his hand but then stopped right in front of him. My first instinct was to throw my arms around him and hug myself close to him but I was pretty sure he was still mad at me. So I just stared at him instead.

"Are you alright?" he asked, sounding worried.

"I'm fine. I'm really sorry though!" I said quickly.

"Let's go somewhere quiet where we can talk for a little alright?" he said while eying the fight.

I saw that the wolves and the Cullens were working together really well, they kept surrounding James, Laurent and Victoria and they were slowly tearing off small pieces of the three vampires. It was a gruesome sight but at least they were winning now.

"The fight is almost over anyways," Edward added with a smile. "As long as they remember to burn the remains, it shouldn't take more than five minutes before these creeps will never hurt anyone ever again," he finished off rather bitterly. "So what do you say? Shall we get out of here?" he offered kindly.

"Good idea," I muttered a little queasily.

"Hold on," Edward said kindly as he scooped me into his arms bridal style.

I did as he asked and I was grateful that he hadn't swung me on his back like James had done earlier. That would have been too much to handle for me right now. I was already holding on to my consciousness with enough difficulty as it was.

"We're here," he said softly as he put me down on the ground.

We hadn't left the forest yet, which I thought was a bit strange.

"Don't worry, you'll be safe here," he said calmly.

I looked around and I saw a beautiful, perfectly round meadow.

"Next to the beach I showed you on our first date, this is one of my favorite places as well," he said softly.

"It's beautiful Edward," I replied.

"Why don't we sit down for now, I'm sure you must be tired," he continued kindly.

"I'm alright," I said but sat down anyways.

"Are you sure? This can't have been easy for you. I am so sorry that I hung up on you the first time! I shouldn't have done that, maybe then we would have gotten here sooner. But as soon as I heard that you were in trouble my entire world caved in. I don't know what I would have done if something had happened to you Bella! I even broke the treaty by going onto the reservation. I ran into your friend, Jacob Black. He looks a lot like his ancestors. He was furious that I had had the nerve to go onto their territory without permission but when I explained it was because of you he relaxed and heard me out. I told him about the phone call. The rest of the pack was already in the woods but he had just gone back because one of the vampires had gotten a good hold of him in one of their previous battles. Before I could explain everything he had phased and he was running into the woods. I called after him that we would be joining them very soon. I just had to wait for the rest of the family to get up to speed so we could start searching for you efficiently. Bella, I am so sorry! You have no idea!" he explained in a rush. "It took us a little longer to find you because the wolves' scents were everywhere in the forest and Alice couldn't see a thing when she was searching for your future, which made me think it was too late but Alice seemed convinced that you were still alive and that we should continue the search. That's when I heard the pack's collective thoughts and it wasn't hard to find them after that. But I am so sorry it took us so long to get there. The wolves were obviously doing a good job but they were in over their heads. I shouldn't have left you in the first place, this would have never happened then," he said sadly.

He was apologizing? But that was supposed to be my job!

"I don't understand; you're mad at me! Why would you care?" I said confused.

"Sure I was mad at you but Alice talked some sense in to me, and just because I was upset doesn't mean I didn't love you anymore," he said softly.

"You still love me?" I asked surprised.

"Yes," he said simply.

I let out a sigh of relief.

"Look, I need to explain what happened," I started softly. "I wasn't using you for my story! I wrote those notes because they helped me with the story but I had ruled you all out as suspects as soon as I fell for you and as soon as we had that talk with all of you. I got to know you because I thought it was suspicious that you all would move here around the same time that the killings had started and I wanted to know whether you all had any part in this or if that was just one big coincidence. But I'd be lying if I said that that was the only reason I wanted to get to know all of you, but especially you Edward, better. I truly love you with all my heart and it doesn't excuse what I did but I need you to know it was never my intention to betray you," I explained softly.

Tears started welling up in my eyes and I had no idea whether they were from relief or from the shock of all that had happened or whether they were because I was scared that Edward was still mad at me.

"I know, I'm sorry for how I reacted," Edward replied softly.

"So now what?" I asked weakly.

"I don't know," he said softly.

"You're still mad at me." It wasn't a question.

"Not at all love," he contradicted.

"But you don't want to be with me." Again a statement.

"I want nothing more than to be with you, but look what happens when you're a part of my world," he said sadly.

"This had nothing to do with you; I was already on this story before I even met you!" I said strongly. "I stumbled into the mythical world all on my own, it had nothing to do with you and I will not have you blame yourself for any of this!" I said sternly.

"But," he started.

"No, no buts! It's not your fault, it's my own fault. I want to be with you," I interrupted him.

"You're an extraordinary girl, Bella Swan," Edward said lovingly.

"I know," I shrugged and laughed.

Edward chuckled. But he quickly turned serious again. "Does that mean you'll still have me?" he asked softly.

"Are you kidding?" I exclaimed before I threw myself into his lap and brought my fingers to his hair, pulling his face close to mine and placing a soft kiss on his lips. I could feel him smile but then he kissed me back passionately. He wrapped his arms around my back and pulled me close to him. We stayed that way, kissing and hugging, for an immeasurable amount of time and it was perfect.

But then I remembered Charlie and that I had to let him know that everything was alright with me. I'm sure he'd already been very worried about me; I had never stayed away from home without letting Charlie know what was going on.

"Charlie," I murmured against Edward's lips.

"I know. I should bring you back. I should have done that earlier. He's been worried sick about you," Edward replied. "He was very close to sending the entire police corps of Forks and preferably all those of the cities near Forks into the forest to look for you. But Billy called him and told him that the pack was on it," Edward explained.

"So… Dad knows?" I asked dumbly.

"No he doesn't, but Billy told him that the boys from the reservation know the area very well and that they could take care of everything," he replied.

"Okay, that makes sense," I murmured.

"I thought I'd find you guys here." I heard Alice's voice coming from the opposite side of the meadow.

"Alice!" I exclaimed in relief before running over to her and hugging her.

"Everyone is fine Bella," she said reassuringly.

I let out a sigh in relief. "I'm so sorry!" I told her weakly.

"I know, you don't have to explain anything, we all know what happened," she said calmly.

"Charlie?" Edward interrupted us.

"Right, Charlie," I replied dumbly.

"Yes, you should really go see him, I just came here to inform you guys that everything is taken care of, those three will never hurt anyone else and all the good guys are safe and sound," she said triumphantly.

"I'm glad! Thank you so much!" I said gratefully.

"Don't ever do anything as stupid as that again though!" Alice said sternly.

I didn't reply; I couldn't make a promise like that. Especially since my goal was to become an investigative reporter; I'd have to face danger on a weekly basis. Granted it would probably not involve supernatural danger but still.

Edward brought me home and before I knew it I was squeezed tightly by Charlie. He had never really shown much emotion to me before but he was actually sobbing now.

"I'm glad you're alright!" he said like he had said a million times already in the past fifteen minutes. He hadn't let go of me yet and I just stood there, uncomfortably hugging him back. "Don't you _ever_ do that to me again you hear me?" he warned and I just smiled.

"I'm sorry dad," I replied softly. "I was lucky Edward, his family and the guys from La Push were there to save me," I said after Charlie had loosened his grip on me.

It was the first time he really acknowledged Edward since we'd gotten home. Edward had just patiently been waiting for my dad to finish hugging me.

"You're right, thank you so much Edward," Charlie said sincerely. "Also thank your family for me. I don't know what I'd do if something had happened to my little girl," he blubbered while extending his hand towards Edward in a gesture of thanks.

Edward shook it. "I'd like to say it was my pleasure but I've never been this worried about anything before so it wasn't really a pleasure. I'm just happy she's safe again," Edward said kindly. I just shot him a tentative smile.

"How did you find her by the way?" Charlie asked curiously.

"That was really because of the guys from La Push, they know the forest really well and they were able to find where those people had taken Bella. I'm just happy Bella was able to call me to tell me she was in the forest and she was in trouble, I quickly made my way over to La Push and we began the search," Edward explained. "I'm so very relieved we got there in time." Edward let out a sigh in relief.

"Me too," Charlie agreed. "So what happened to those criminals?" Charlie asked bitterly. "I would love to get some time alone with them." I could see him clench his fist in anger.

"I'm afraid that won't be possible, but it's best if you don't know the details. The good news is they will never hurt anyone again," Edward assured Charlie and he seemed to think that was enough for him.

"Too bad though, I would have loved to give them a piece of my mind," he said darkly.

I let out a huge yawn. "I'm exhausted; I'm going to go to bed alright?" I asked.

"You should really eat something first," Charlie said cautiously.

"Alright," I gave in, getting hungry the moment Charlie mentioned food. I hadn't eaten in quite a while so it was probably a good idea to do that.

I quickly fixed myself a sandwich, not in the mood to make anything elaborate. And I finished it within seconds.

"I should go," Edward said softly. "Goodnight Charlie."

"Goodnight Edward, and thank you again! I can't thank you enough for bringing her home safely," Charlie said, voice still thick with emotion.

Edward just nodded in understanding before walking towards the door.

"I don't want to be alone tonight," I said weakly.

"I'll be in your room before you will," Edward promised before quickly kissing my lips and walking towards his Volvo.

Edward was right. After I had said goodnight to Charlie I climbed up the stairs slowly, almost too tired and weak to move at all. This experience had really taken its toll on me. But when I arrived in my room Edward was already lying on my bed, smiling unevenly at me.

"Hello love," he said sweetly.

I couldn't speak anymore; I just let myself fall down on the bed and snuggled up to him. I was too exhausted to even take off my shoes or put on my pajamas.

Edward carefully lifted himself off of my bed and I let out a groan in annoyance. I wanted him to hold me right now.

"Patience love, I just didn't think you'd want your bed to get all dirty by all the mud that's on your shoes right now," he said with a smile.

"Right," I muttered weakly.

I felt him take off my shoes and placing my blanket over me. I was already slipping away into unconsciousness and had trouble forming coherent thoughts but there were some things that still had me worried.

"So… your family will forgive me?" I asked softly after working very hard on making sure the sentence made sense.

"They were never mad at you love. Remember that vision Alice had had when you visited our house?"

I just nodded.

"Well, she saw your future with me as soon as you made up your mind about that. They were all already convinced you truly loved me and that you weren't just using me. I was just too stubborn to give in to that so easily. I couldn't believe you loved me in the first place; it still doesn't make any sense to me. So no matter how much Alice was trying to convince me that we belonged together and that there had to be some explanation for the notes, I still remained stubborn and kept being mad at you. Actually it wasn't so much that I was mad at you even, I was more mad at myself for giving my heart to you so easily without knowing a whole lot about you," he said softly.

"Ah," I just said. "So they're not mad?"

"No silly, they're not mad, they still love you," he said with a smile.

"Good," I sighed in relief.

"What about my story?" I asked again. I didn't know why I just didn't go to sleep already but I first needed some answers. My story had me worried now. The mystery was solved and the bad guys were gone but I still had some things to figure out.

"Why don't we figure that out tomorrow?" Edward suggested.

"But I can't reveal your secret," I said stubbornly holding on to my consciousness.

"No, that wouldn't be wise," he replied softly.

"Nobody would believe a first time reporter like me anyways."

"That was mean of me to say, I'm sorry about that," Edward said sadly.

"It's okay." I hadn't brought it up because I was mad at that comment, he just had a point.

"We'll figure it out tomorrow alright? I promise," Edward said sweetly.

"I'm afraid to go to sleep," I said all of a sudden. I hadn't realized the truth of that statement until I said it out loud.

"I'm not going to let anything happen to you love," Edward said sincerely.

"I know, but I was so scared, I don't want to relive the memory just yet," I said pathetically.

"Well, if you're determined to stay awake, I have something else we can do," Edward replied thoughtfully.

"What's that?" I asked curiously.

"This," Edward said as he lifted my chin and brought his lips closer to mine. He kissed me softly and sweetly at first but he quickly changed his tactics. Before I knew it he was on top of me and he was kissing me urgently and passionately unlike he had ever done before; it was as if the faith of the world depended on it. We kissed for a while and I was perfectly happy. I couldn't remember anything but the feeling of his lips moving with mine, his hands on my back and my hands in his hair.

At a certain point I had to break free so I could catch my breath. I let out a yawn again.

"It would be good for you to catch some sleep," Edward said softly. "I'll be here the entire time," he vowed.

"Will you sing for me?" I muttered pathetically.

"Sure love," he said sweetly while starting to hum a sweet melody.

"My savior!" I sighed softly.

Edward chuckled before he continued humming that beautiful melody and before I knew it I was sleeping a dreamless sleep. It was perfect.

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A/N**__: There now isn't that sweet? ;) Told you there wasn't going to be another cliffhanger ;) Hope you liked the chapter :) I'll be back tomorrow with the final real chapter. After that it's only a short Epilogue and then the story is really finished :) See you all tomorrow! :)_

_Xxx_

_Thari_


	16. Making It Work

_**A/N**__: Hello everyone, as of a few minutes ago I'm in a happy mood so what better way to celebrate than by updating a new chapter? :D And it's a happy happy chapter as well so that's good right? :P _

_But there is a sad note to this all… It's the last real chapter of this story… Only an epilogue left after this… Aaaaaaw :( _

_Anyways, thanks for reviewing __**Yeye85**__ and __**Shirley**__ you guys are really awesome! Thanks so much for reviewing every single chapter I have written! I love that! :D So digital cupcakes for you! (I made them yesterday and trust me they are DELICIOUS! :D Not as good as the dough was but can't have it all ;):P)_

_To __**Yeye85**__: your review made me laugh :D Beware of this chapter though; it'll be sweet too ;)_

_To __**Shirley**__: I loved your side note on Tangled and since I don't have anything else to do today that's really pressing (my exam is over! :D) I think I might just take your advice and watch it ;) I wanted to watch it yesterday but my computer wasn't really working with me so I settled for watching Never Been Kissed instead… AGAIN :D I love that movie! But anyways… Since this is not a PM to you and people are probably reading this as well I should shut up now… :P Thanks for the great review! :D Just one more thing: I loved your signoff :D It was great! :D It's a good thing I'm your biggest fan too ;) So you don't have to feel uncomfortable hahaha :D _

_Anyways… See that's what happens when I'm in a good mood… I start rambling like a crazy person… SORRY! :D I'll shut up and let you move on to the chapter :) Hope you enjoy it :) Let me know what you thought! :) _

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Making It Work**

"This is great work Bella!" Adam said enthusiastically after reading my article.

It was a week after the incident in the forest and I was back in Seattle. I had finally finished the story. Edward had helped me like he had promised and we had given it all a human spin while staying as close to the truth as we possibly could.

"Even after being in the news business for so long, I still can't believe people are crazy enough to do things like this," Adam said while shaking his head.

In my article I had explained that the people who had disappeared were indeed found after a few weeks with their bodies completely drained of blood. I also related this to the previous articles I had found on disappearances in the areas surrounding Forks. But I did explain that, unlike the previous assumptions, animals were not behind the attacks.

Emmett told me that he had once seen this movie where a serial killer had drained one of his victims of blood completely and had written a message on the window with the victim's blood. I had shivered involuntarily at the thought but it did make it a little easier to explain this story as if a human had done it.

So I wrote that three people had been kidnapping hikers and had tortured them first, after which they killed their victims by completely draining them of their blood, making it seem as if an animal had been attacking the victims.

At first I considered actually linking it to vampires by saying that the people behind this were part of a cult who pretended to be vampires. But I didn't want to cause unnecessary fear of groups pretending to be vampires so I had settled for animal attacks instead, since the newspapers that had previously covered attacks like this one had assumed animals had done it anyway.

I explained that the attackers didn't go through any effort of trying to hide the bodies, since an animal wouldn't do that either. But it always took the police so long to find the victims because the killers would take their victims deep into the forest into territories where nobody usually went. It sounded like a plausible story to me and apparently Adam agreed with me because he didn't look suspicious at all.

"Are you alright though? I'm really glad that you were able to stop the attacks but you did put yourself in great danger by doing this Bella! You weren't careful enough," he said sternly.

"I know, I'll do better next time," I promised him.

I made sure my article showed that the killers were gone for good. I said that a group of brave men and women from the area of Forks had been able to save me from these monsters and that because the three criminals attacked the group; they were forced to kill them all. Charlie had collaborated and had given a statement as head of the police department of Forks that the group had been taken care of. I used his quote in my article so that nobody would think that something fishy was going on.

"I'm sure you will," Adam said confidently.

Did that mean that I was really going to get more investigative jobs soon?

"So you'll let me work on more stories like this?" I asked bluntly while blushing heavily.

"I don't see why not, you have been great at every assignment I have given you before and now you have already shown initiative and brought me a great story all on your own. You're growing into a great reporter very quickly Bella, and I for one won't do anything to stand in your way! But I know how stressful this assignment must have been for you so why don't you take the rest of the week off and relax a little so you'll be fresh on Monday for a new assignment?" he offered.

"Thank you!" I replied enthusiastically. I was touched by his words.

I still couldn't believe how easily this all had gone and I was grateful that for once in my life I actually seemed to be good at something I enjoyed.

"Bella!" Angela said not long after Adam had gone back into his office.

"Hi Ang!" I replied enthusiastically.

"I haven't seen you around in a long time! You told me you were working on a big story back in Forks. So how did that go?" she asked genuinely interested.

"Adam said it was a very good piece," I said not even trying to hide my pride.

"That's great! Wow I can't believe you've already gotten your big break into investigative reporting!" she said happily.

"Me neither," I replied with a smile.

"I'm very proud of you!" she said sincerely before giving me a short hug.

"Thank you Ang!"

We chatted for a while longer and Angela said she was looking forward to reading my story. I was very happy that I had such a good friend.

I came home to my apartment at five and I noticed something was off. The door was unlocked. I walked in carefully - scared that I might run into a burglar or worse - only to find my beautiful boyfriend standing in the hallway with a huge smile on his face. I threw myself into his arms quickly and started kissing him enthusiastically.

"What are you doing here?" I asked surprised after I was done kissing him, for now. "I didn't see your car," I continued a little confused.

"Alice dropped me off, she said she was in serious need of some shopping time and Seattle was, according to her, the perfect place for that," Edward explained lightly. "But I came to surprise you because I missed you. Is that strange?" he asked sounding a little unsure, which was very out of character for him.

"Not at all! I missed you too! I don't like being away from you!" I replied easily.

"I'm glad you feel the same way," he said, sounding genuinely relieved.

He lowered his head and kissed me again.

"Hmmm-mm," I murmured against his lips.

"Would you mind if I showed you something?" Edward asked unsurely again. What was going on with him?

"Uhm, I guess not," I said thoughtfully.

"Please, don't be too enthusiastic," Edward said mock-annoyed while rolling his eyes at me.

"Sorry, you're just acting a bit strange," I said softly while blushing heavily.

"I know, it'll become clear if you come with me," he replied.

"Alright."

Edward took my hand in his and started leading me out the door again.

"Where are we going?" I asked after I'd locked the front door.

"You'll see," Edward replied mysteriously.

"You know I hate surprises," I said annoyed.

The drive didn't take very long and we hadn't left Seattle yet when Edward parked the car. Edward got out of the car and helped me out not much later. I had no idea where we were, I didn't know Seattle that well after all. I only knew where my apartment was, where my job was and where I could get some groceries if I needed them.

"What are we doing here?" I asked as Edward started walking away from the car.

"You'll see." Again with the mystery. I just rolled my eyes in annoyance and started following Edward to wherever he was going.

He stopped in front of a small house and opened the front door.

"Breaking and entering is against the law you know," I said a little shocked.

"We're not breaking and entering Bella," he said while rolling his eyes at me.

"Oh?" I raised my eyebrows at him suspiciously.

"Still see me as a bad guy do you?" he mocked.

I turned red from the accusation, I know he didn't mean it and that that whole note-fiasco was completely behind us but I was still ashamed that I had made him believe that I didn't trust him.

"It's alright love, I promise it's nothing illegal," Edward said with a smile as he held the door open for me.

We walked into the house and it was cozy, it was nicely decorated and for some reason it made me feel right at home.

"Do you like it?" Edward asked after I'd been walking around the room for a while.

"I do, but I still don't understand what we're doing here," I said a little uncomfortably.

"Right, well," Edward started and he sounded very uncomfortable himself.

"What is it?" I pressed.

Edward silently took my hand and sat me down on the couch. I just stared at him as he sat next to me.

"Well, I hate being away from you and the feeling I have whenever I not with you, I miss you every second we're apart," Edward said softly. "I know we haven't really been going out very long and that it's probably already going too quickly but I feel like we belong together and I don't ever want to spend any time away from you anymore. Last week's events made me realize that I wouldn't know what to do if anything happens to you, I don't want anything to come between us like that ever again!"

I was just staring at Edward, waiting for him to continue. I still had no clue what we were doing in this house.

"So," he started uncomfortably before moving off the couch and kneeling down in front of me.

My eyes widened in shock as he went into his pocket and pulled out a small jewelry box.

"I love you Bella, I have never loved anyone as much as I love you and I want to spend every single moment of forever with you. Will you marry me?" Edward asked while eying me expectantly.

But before I could respond in any way Edward already continued.

"I know it's very sudden so if you think I'm moving too quickly then that's fine and you can forget this ever happened. I asked Alice to decorate this house and it could be ours if you do want to marry me, so we don't have to spend any time apart anymore. But I understand if you don't want to marry just yet," he rambled.

I just threw myself in his arms and started kissing him to make him stop him from trying to get me to back out.

"I love you," I murmured against his lips.

"As I love you," he replied simply. "Does that mean…?" he started.

"I'd love to marry you and live here with you," I finished the sentence for him.

Edward's face broke down into a breath taking smile, he looked radiant and I couldn't help but beam back at him. I couldn't imagine a better man for myself.

"So when can we move in?" I asked impatiently.

"Well, I already bought the house," he said a little ashamed. "I figured even if you didn't want to live with me just yet and didn't want to marry me at least I would have a place where I could live so that I could spend more time with you without having to travel all the way back and forth between Forks and Seattle," he rambled. "So we can move in whenever we want to," Edward finished with a smile.

"That's great!" I said enthusiastically. "How about today?"

Edward chuckled. "This is so not how I was raised," he muttered.

"What are you talking about?"

"Well, it wasn't very appropriate for a boy and girl to live together without being married when I was younger. My parents always taught me to be respectful and propose first," he said thoughtfully.

"You did propose! We are getting married! I just don't want to wait until then to start living with you. I know Alice would probably want to organize our wedding together with Rosalie and Esme and we should give them some time to organize it just right. However, I don't want to spend any more time away from you when I know that we already have a house we could easily be living in together," I stated matter-of-factly. "Besides, it's not like you haven't been in my room often enough while I was sleeping, I'm sure you're parents didn't raise you to do that either," I challenged.

"Touché!" Edward chuckled. "But you're right," Edward gave in with a smile.

"Good! So when are we moving my stuff in here?" I asked eagerly.

"Why don't you give me a second to call my family and ask them for help? It'll be ready before you know it," Edward suggested.

"Don't bother," Alice said smugly as she opened the door, already carrying a few boxes which I could only assume contained some of my stuff.

"How did you know?" I asked surprised.

I should have known better. Alice just grinned at me. "I'm hurt you keep forgetting that I'm special," she said feigning hurt.

"But your power only works when people have already made a decision right?" I questioned, still surprised.

"Yes, although I don't really need my power to know how much you love my brother. I knew you would say yes anyways. So I had already made sure that I was near your apartment. The moment my visions confirmed it, I packed your stuff and brought the first bunch over here," she announced proudly.

It wasn't long before Emmett and Jasper came in carrying a few boxes of their own.

"Congrats bro," Emmett said to Edward.

Edward just beamed back at him.

"You too little sis, welcome to the family," he continued to me with a smile.

"Thanks Em," I replied, grinning back at Emmett.

"Oh yeah, I had already called over the entire family before so it would speed up the move a little," Alice added smugly.

"Thanks Alice, you're the best," I told her happily.

"I know." She shrugged before dashing out of the room again to get some new boxes.

Not long after Alice had left the room Esme and Carlisle came in and the look on Esme's face told me she would have been crying if it had been possible.

"I'm so proud of you son," she told Edward. Her voice was thick with emotion and I could clearly hear a soft sob as she hugged Edward.

"I couldn't have wished for a better wife for my boy," Esme continued while pulling me in for a hug. "Or a better daughter for that matter."

"Thank you," I replied, touched by her words.

"Congratulations children," Carlisle said while shaking both our hands.

Rosalie was the last one to join us and she quickly put her boxes on the floor the moment she saw me, she ran up to me and picked me up for a hug.

"I'm so happy Edward found you," she said softly. "Take good care of my brother alright!"

"You know I will, thanks Rose," I replied sincerely.

We spent the rest of the afternoon moving my stuff from my old apartment to our new house. It was amazing how quickly this had all happened but I couldn't have been happier, it all felt completely natural and even though I hadn't known Edward for that long at all, I knew that in his arms was the only place I wanted to be for eternity.

We were lying in our bed that evening just kissing and cuddling. _Our_ bed, in _our_ home, it sounded perfect to me. I let out a sigh in contentment.

"What are you thinking love?" Edward asked as he was placing kisses all along my neck.

"That I couldn't have wished for a more perfect day than today and that it sounds great to think that we're lying in _our_ bed in _our_ home," I told him with a smile. I didn't even bother to feel uncomfortable or embarrassed about my thoughts anymore, it was pointless anyways. Edward loves me for who I am, even with all the silly, emotional crap I can come up with sometimes.

"Hmm that does sound rather close to perfect now doesn't it?" Edward replied with a smile.

"Thank you so much," I said all of a sudden.

"For what?" Edward asked. He stopped kissing me to look me in the eyes.

"For being who you are," I replied simply. "I never thought I could find a guy as great as you are, yet still here you are, my fiancé. I love you Edward," I said sweetly.

"I should be the one thanking you love. Not even in my wildest dreams could I have imagined a girl as great as you and to think that you know everything about me and still accept me is just mindboggling. You are by far the best thing that has ever happened to me and I am so grateful that even though we haven't known each other for long you're still willing to spend the rest of your life with me," he replied softly.

The rest of my life… So he still didn't want me to become like him? This boy was too darn stubborn for his own good. But I was going to get my way. I didn't have to become a vampire just yet, I was very happy the way my life was right now. But there is no chance in hell that I am going to remain human and grow old when he gets to stay perfect and beautiful and young forever.

But for now I didn't want to ruin the moment, since I know he always gets cranky when he thinks of me wanting to become a vampire. We were going to talk about it, and soon; but not tonight. Tonight we were just going to spend in pure bliss in our new house; I was just going to enjoy my fiancé's company.

We had completely lost track of time but it didn't matter. We stayed in each other's arms kissing and hugging and loving each other until five in the morning, when it was getting too much for my body to stay awake. I drifted away into a perfect sleep with the man I loved right next to me. Where he would be staying, _forever_.

_**

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A/N**__: That movie Emmett talked about with the serial killer is actually a movie I watched; it's about FBI agents training on some sort of island and getting killed one by one. I can't really remember the title but I do know it was one of the scariest movies I've ever seen maybe even _the_ scariest movie… since I hate scary movies and I never really watch them… Although Saw came pretty close :P I don't really mind scary stories that are obviously fake I just don't like things that _can_ be real :D _

_Anyway... Edward and Bella are getting married, yay! I know it's very soon since they don't really know each other all that well but let's face it, if it was Edward asking you to marry him, wouldn't you jump in straight away? No matter how long you've known him for. And the reason he proposed is because he thought he'd lost Bella in the woods and that made him realize he never wanted to be away from her again. So I think it's at least slightly plausible ;)_

_So that was it for the last real chapter of this story. I hope you liked it! :) I'll be back tomorrow with the Epilogue :) In the meantime, let me know what you thought :)_

_Xxx_

_Thari_


	17. Epilogue

_**A/N**__: Hi everyone, SORRY about the late update, VERY busy day! But I'm back for the last time this story *sad face* Thanks to my wonderful reviewers, __**Yeye85**__ and __**Shirley**__, and also thanks to everyone who has been with me throughout this story and has added it or me to their favorites or alerts :) I greatly appreciate it! :) Free digital goodies (you can pick your favorites yourselves) for everyone! :D_

_To __**Yeye85**__: Sure it was a good movie :P But very scary :D Both me and my boyfriend were scared to go to the bathroom :P Mostly because we were both afraid that the other one was going to scare the one going to the bathroom :D Anyways… Probably TMI ;) I'm glad you liked the cupcake ;) Tell your dentist I'm sorry I'm such a bad influence on your teeth ;)_

_To __**Shirley**__: Hope the birthday-dinner-thingy was at least fun ;) My exam went okay… Probably not the grade I was hoping for but still a pass I'm sure :) I didn't get a chance to watch Tangled because the site wasn't working with me :( Damn those illegal sites! If they are going to do something illegal… AT LEAST DO IT RIGHT! :D Hahaha you were right about the fluff, you really do know me ;) But what else can I expect from my nr. 1 fan? ;) Thank you for your very sweet words! They really made me smile :D _

_Well, this is really it for this story :) Hope you enjoy the epilogue :)_

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Epilogue**

_Five Years Later_

"And the Pulitzer goes to Isabella Marie Cullen-Swan for her piece on crime in Seattle." I walked up to the stage confidently to accept my award.

I heard some howling coming from the back of the room and I saw Jacob and Seth standing there, next to Charlie and Billy, cheering me on. I smiled at them. Then I looked over to where my beautiful husband was sitting and he smiled back at me proudly. I had him to thank for all this.

And then there was Alice, my personal fairy godmother. She had made sure that I was absolutely perfect for today. I was wearing a beautiful dress, my hair was working with me and I was wearing enough make up to make me look beautiful but still natural. I smiled at her and she nodded back at me enthusiastically, knowing exactly why I was thanking her.

I said my speech. A speech I had been practicing since I had been a little girl. I had never actually thought I would win a Pulitzer but I had done it and now the speech came out naturally. Sure there had been a few additions over the years. I had to thank Adam for giving me the opportunity to grow as quickly as I had. I thanked my father for letting me stay with him whenever I needed to. I thanked Jacob and all the other guys from La Push for saving me and for being there for me. But most importantly I thanked my newest family members, the Cullens. They were always there for me whenever I needed them, they saved me from myself countless times and they even let me have their name.

Isabella Marie Cullen-Swan, that was officially my name nowadays. Although I still would just be Bella Cullen to everyone but I thought my full name would sound more official on occasions like this.

I had learned so much over the past couple of years. I had married Edward four years ago; the wedding had been even more perfect than I had been able to imagine when Edward proposed. We were happily living in Seattle, in the same house Edward proposed to me in but we had added some extra rooms for the frequent guests we had. The Cullens visited often, it was hard for any of us to stay away for long and we would eventually move back to Forks or wherever with the family once I was finished with my job here.

Edward and I had talked about me becoming a vampire and he agreed to change me whenever I was truly ready. For now that would have to wait though. I had just won a Pulitzer and my life was exactly where I wanted it to be. I had my friends and I had an amazing family and I wasn't quite ready to say goodbye to all of that yet. I knew that I would probably not be able to put it off for much longer because I didn't want Edward to be married to a 50-year-old or anything, he was changed at 17 and I know that actual age doesn't really matter to Edward but still I didn't want to be all wrinkly for eternity.

Jacob and Leah had gotten married too and Leah was currently pregnant with their first child. Jacob was completely over the moon about it all and I knew he would make a great father. Jake and I still talked frequently and I know that Jake and Edward are supposed to be mortal enemies and everything but luckily they could get along quite well together. I even discussed becoming a vampire with Jake and even though he wasn't thrilled with the idea, he knew it was inevitable.

"_Bella, why would you want to become a monster?" he asked me. _

"_I won't be a monster, the Cullens will keep me from that," I told him sternly. _

"_I know, but still, to give up all that you have for them," he replied sadly. _

_I knew what he meant, I'd have to give up my family, they would know the change in me and they would ask questions. It wouldn't be safe for them to know what had happened to me but I was planning to ignore that little fact until the time came and I was actually ready to change. _

"_Will I have to give up being your best friend?" I had dreaded that question because I was quite certain the answer was going to be yes. But Jacob surprised me. _

"_I've thought about it a lot and I knew from the moment you were involved with them that it would come to this. But no, you won't have to give up being my friend. I want my children to have their godmother after all," he had said. _

And he had meant it, he had apparently talked to Leah about it and she had agreed that even if I would become a vampire, as long as I promised not to feed on humans I would be allowed to be in their lives. Leah and I were good friends nowadays as well and she told me that she couldn't wish for better godparents than Edward and I. At least we would be able to protect their children and raise them right.

Alice had organized a party at our house in Seattle for our friends and family to celebrate my Pulitzer. That's why I was currently twirling around the living room with my husband. _My husband_. It never failed to send butterflies through my stomach. I still couldn't believe how lucky I was to have him in my life.

"I'm so very proud of you Bella," Edward whispered sweetly.

I just beamed back at him.

"Do you mind if I cut in for a moment?" Jacob asked Edward.

"Not at all, go right ahead," he replied.

Jacob took me in his arms and even though dancing with him wasn't as easy as it had been with Edward, it still felt very nice to be with my best friend again.

"You look beautiful Bells," he said softly.

"Thanks," I muttered.

"I always knew you could do it," he continued. "Just don't forget us little people now that you're all the way at the top alright?" he joked.

"Don't worry about that, I'll make sure to send a postcard every now and then," I joked back. "But seriously Jake, I could never forget you and everything you've done for me! Thank you for everything!" I said sincerely.

Dancing with Jake reminded me of my wedding and the conversation we had had during our dance.

"_Bells?" Jake asked uncomfortably. _

"_Hmmm?" I replied. _

"_Are you happy?" He looked at me with a serious expression and he was genuinely concerned about me. _

"_Extremely happy Jake," I replied sincerely. _

"_Good, he's a good guy Bells, but if he ever treats you less than perfect you have to let me know!" he said, still not joking. _

"_Thanks Jake but he loves me and I love him and he wouldn't do anything to hurt me, ever," I promised him._

"_That's good, because I can kick his ass you know," he replied lightly and I just laughed._

"I believe it's my turn now," Adam's voice broke me out of my memory.

"Hi, sure," I replied, a little taken aback.

Adam and I started dancing cautiously, just swaying from side to side.

"I'm very proud of you Bella, I knew you could do it but to think you did it so quickly, that's really admirable!" he praised me.

"Thanks Adam, I couldn't have done it without your support," I replied sincerely. "I can't believe you're going to leave us though," I said sadly.

Adam had been offered a job at the Washington Post; it was something he had always dreamed of so he was moving to DC to be editor in chief there.

"It was only a matter of time, besides you would have taken over my job sooner or later anyways, this time at least someone else can boss you around for a little bit until you kick him off his throne," he joked.

"I doubt I'll ever make editor," I replied with a smile. "I like reporting too much."

"I can see why getting yourself in constant danger would appeal to you more," he remarked lightly.

I just smiled. I had been in quite a few dangerous situations ever since I started real investigative reporting. But every time my personal knight in shining armor had been there to save me. And it always left me with a great story to tell and an amazing article. I wouldn't have it any other way. Besides, Edward needed something to keep himself busy for now. He didn't want to do a part-time or fulltime job yet and he didn't want to go to school so I guess rescuing me on a daily basis was a good alternative for him.

Although if it was up to Edward I would become editor as soon as possible, just so he wouldn't constantly have to worry about whether or not I was alright. It was difficult to convince him that this was what I had always dreamed of but that I knew I was safe with him watching my every move.

I had a lot of fun at the party. I would have hated something like this when I was younger. I hated the spotlight and I hated dancing. So dancing at a party that was all about me would have been complete torture for me back then. But now I was just having fun with my friends. I was proud of my accomplishments and I couldn't really care what people thought of me so dancing wasn't an issue anymore.

That's why I was currently doing silly dances with Rose, Alice and Ang. We were dancing to songs like those of the Spice Girls, all the classics, bringing back memories from my childhood. It was funny how everyone seemed to remember those dance moves even though it had been ages since anyone actually heard those songs. But when at a certain point "Stop Right Now" was playing everyone knew exactly what to do. Especially Emmett seemed to know exactly how the dance went because he was in the middle of our little group at that point, showing us all the moves and doing silly dances of his own whenever the chorus had ended.

It was already really late when the party ended and it was time for everyone to go home. I helped Alice with some of the cleaning, although I couldn't keep up with her vampire speed so I just stood there most of the time feeling helpless.

"Why don't we go to bed?" Edward suggested after I'd been staring at Alice's impression of a whirlwind as she cleaned the room.

"Sounds like a plan to me," I said happily.

"You guys have fun," Emmett said suggestively.

"We will," I replied simply while winking at the big buffoon.

Emmett laughed. "As long as you keep it down, I don't need to hear all that, it'll hurt my fragile soul," he said jokingly.

"Like you ever kept it down for me!" Edward shot back mock-insulted.

Emmett let out another booming laughter. "Touché bro!" he said before waving us goodnight.

"Did you have fun love?" Edward asked when we were lying in bed.

"Yes it was perfect," I said happily. "Well, almost perfect," I continued suggestively.

"What can I do to make it completely perfect then?" he replied with a smile, knowing exactly what I had meant.

"This," I said while climbing on top of him and kissing him passionately on the lips. I traced his lips with my tongue and let out a soft sigh at the fabulous taste of his skin.

"Gross!" Emmett yelled from downstairs.

I just let out a small giggle before returning my complete focus to my perfect husband who had already removed his shirt. I looked at his fabulous chest and knew that life couldn't get any better than this. I was in heaven.

_**

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A/N**__: Aaw the story is really over now :( Hope you liked it :) Let me know what you thought! :) _

_I'm already working on a new longer story and I have a few other ideas for stories so it won't be long before I'm back with another story :) Just check my profile every once in a while if you want to know what I'm working on or what kinds of ideas I still have :) And of course for any stories I've uploaded ;)_

_Until next time,_

_Xxx_

_Thari_


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